Tim McCarver belted a three-run homer in the tenth inning to give St. Louis a 5-2 win over New York in the fifth game of the World Series yesterday.

The Cardinals now lead 3-2 in the Series, which resumes in St. Louis tomorrow after a day of travel.

McCarver will certainly garner all the headlines, but the Cards would not have won without the brilliant pitching of Bob Gibson and some execrable defensive plays by the Yankees.

With one out in the fifth inning, Gibson hit a blooper into left field; Tom Tresh raced in, got a glove on the ball--and couldn't hold it. Curt Flood then rapped a tailor-made double play ball to Yank second baseman Bobby Richardson--who couldn't hold it either. Lou Brock singled Gibson home, and then Bill White hit a bounder to Richardson which should have ended the inning with a double play, but the relay to first was slow and Brock scored from third.

Meanwhile, Gibson was mowing down the Yankees with regularity; he yielded only six hits in the game and struck out 13. In the second inning he had loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman, but extricated himself by whiffing Clete Boyer and Yankee hurler Mel Stottlemyer.

Groat Bobbles

The Cards' 2-0 lead held up until the ninth, when New York got its big break of the game. Dick Groat bobbled a grounder from Mickey Mantle, and with two out Tom Tresh hammered a Gibson last ball 430 feet into the right field bleachers to tie the game.

The Cards ended it quickly in the tenth. Bill White worked reliefer Pete Mikkelson for a walk; then slugger Ken Boyer laid down a bunt between the mound and first base, and beat it out easily as Mikkelson and Joe Pepitone stood inert and watched it roll. After the Yankees botched a pick-off play on White, McCarver hit his blast into the lower right field stands.