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Duncan's late blast helps Cardinals sweep Pirates

Apr 11, 2007 - 11:39 PM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Chris Duncan rewarded the St. Louis Cardinals for giving him the day off.

Duncan blasted a pinch home run with one out in the top of the ninth inning to lift the Cardinals to a 3-2 triumph over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Despite going hitless in Tuesday night's 12-inning marathon, Duncan scored a run in the ninth to help St. Louis rally for a 3-2 victory. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa opted to leave the lefthanded Duncan out of the lineup Wednesday against Pirates lefthander Paul Maholm.

But with the score tied, La Russa called on Duncan to pinch-hit against Pittsburgh righthanded closer Salomon Torres (0-1).

"I started getting loose in the fifth and tried to stay loose and then keep an eye on the lineup card and try to see a situation were a lefty would hit," said Duncan, who has four pinch homers in his career. "I saw Torres warming up and I figured that's who I'd face, and Tony gave me a heads-up."

Duncan responded by belting Torres' 2-2 pitch over the wall in right-center field to make it 3-2. He batted for So Taguchi, who was 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles.

"It was late in the game and our bullpen was not very deep today, and Chris has got a shot to do some damage," La Russa said. "I wasn't thinking home run, but I thought he'd get on base in front of Albert (Pujols). Taguchi had a great day and he did some of it against righthanders, so this wasn't an automatic platoon situation."

David Eckstein and Preston Wilson had RBI hits in the fifth inning for St. Louis, which swept the three-game series and improved to 24-10 vs. Pittsburgh since the beginning of the 2005 campaign.

"We were able to do some things at the right times today," said Wilson, who delivered a key two-run pinch single in Monday's series opener. "We made some good pitches, got some key hits and were able to make this a good road trip."

Cardinals righthander Ryan Franklin (1-0) worked the final 1 1/3 innings to record the win.

St. Louis' Adam Wainwright was solid in his second career start, yielding two runs, seven hits and four walks with four strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings.

"I don't feel like I challenged anybody all day," Wainwright said. "From the start of the game, I wasn't real good. The one thing I'm going to do though no matter what I bring to the park is battle. I'll work hard enough that the batters will have to work, too."

Maholm tossed five innings, surrendering two runs, six hits and three walks with three strikeouts. Chris Duffy had three hits, including a triple, while Freddy Sanchez lofted a sacrifice fly in the seventh to tie the game for the Pirates, who managed just four runs in the series.

"We just couldn't swing the bats all three games," Duffy said. "I guess the positive we can take out of this is we didn't hit the ball at all and we had a chance to win all three games."

Pittsburgh took a 1-0 lead in the fourth when Humberto Cota singled to plate Brad Eldred. Wainwright escaped further damage when he induced Jack Wilson to fly out with the bases loaded and two outs.

The Cardinals went ahead, 2-1, in the following frame when Eckstein ripped an opposite-field hit to plate Aaron Miles and scored four batters later on Wilson's infield hit with two outs and the bases loaded.