The St. Louis Cardinals made it two in a row over the Pittsburgh Pirates as they downed the Bucs 5-3 Saturday night at PNC Park.
The contest was scoreless until the top of the 5th inning when Matt Holliday drove in Colby Rasmus to give the Redbirds a 1-0 lead.
St. Louis then exploded for 4 runs in the 6th to take a 5-0 lead. 3 of the runs scored on a bases loaded double by Albert Pujols, who run up RBI numbers 98, 99, and 100 on the season.
The Pirates scored a run in the bottom of the 6th off St. Louis starter and winning pitcher Adam Wainwright (13-7) who allowed the lone run on 7 hits in 6 2/3 innings of work. They picked up 2 more runs in the 9th on a Ronny Cedeno two run homer, but that was all the offense the Bucs could muster. Ryan Franklin closed out the game for his 26th save.
The Cards and Bucs close out their weekend series Sunday afternoon in Pittsburgh with Joel Pineiro (9-9) going to the mound for St. Louis against the Pirates’ Zach Duke (9-10).