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Duncan helps Cardinals down Pirates

May 23, 2007 - 6:18 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Pirates had Adam Wainwright on the ropes, but it was the St. Louis Cardinals who applied the knockout punch.

The Pirates loaded the bases with one out in three of the first four innings without taking advantage before Chris Duncan led a fifth and sixth-inning rally as the Cardinals posted a 9-4 victory over their division foes.

St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright, who has been battling elbow tendinitis, yielded nine singles during the three frames the Pirates loaded the bases, but escaped allowing just two runs.

"As many hits as they got off of me tonight it could have been a lot worse," Wainwright said. "I was able to battle and I'm just trying to get back to may old self."

"(Wainwright) gets out of it five innings and only two runs," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "With all the potential they had to break those innings open. I told him I like those one, two, three innings better than those gut wrenchers."

When the Cardinals had their chance to pounce on Pittsburgh starter Zach Duke, they took advantage. Already leading, 3-2, entering the fifth, Duncan singled to the right-center field gap to place runners on second and third with no outs.

Duke looked poised to escape after Albert Pujols flied out into a double play, but Juan Encarnacion singled to left-center, plating Duncan and providing St. Louis a 4-2 lead. After a single by Scott Rolen and an intentional walk, Duke walked Jim Edmonds to plate another run and Aaron Miles greeted reliever Brian Rogers with an RBI single for a 6-2 lead.

"I thought every one as a whole did a good job of taking good at-bats," Duncan said. "That's the key, if we can get a bunch of guys rolling along, it's a dangerous lineup."

Duke (1-5) was charged with six runs and 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings, the third time this season he failed to last five innings.

"I need to throw more quality pitches," Duke said. "There were too many hittable pitches. I'm pretty upset with myself for just throwing pitches down the middle of the plate tonight."

In the next frame, Duncan drilled his eighth homer - the first by a Cardinal at home since April 28 - off Shawn Chacon to plate three runs.

"It was a first pitch fastball and (Chacon) left it up," Duncan said. "I think he was trying to go away and he left it over the middle of the plate."

Ryan Ludwick led off the frame by being hit by a pitch before David Eckstein, who was just re-inserted to the top of the order, posted his third single of the game.

Wainwright (4-3), who provided a two-run double in the second inning for a 2-1 lead, survived 5 1/3 innings, allowing two runs and nine hits with a walk and six strikeouts to improve to 1-1 in three starts against the Pirates this season.

"My curveball was way better tonight," Wainwright said. "I've been telling you all that it's going to come back and tonight was the first time I consistently threw good."

The righthander was coming off his worst outing of the season last Tuesday at Los Angeles. He was tagged for eight runs and seven hits with four walks in 2 2/3 innings. He had surrendered at least five runs in four of his last six starts.

"Physically I felt great," Wainwright said. "For the most part I did it better tonight. The pitches are still catching too much of the plate but I was able to make some adjustments and get the ball a little more down and moving sideways and that makes a big difference."

Pittsburgh loaded the bases in the first inning on singles by Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay and a walk to Adam LaRoche before Xavier Nady dumped a flair into right field for a run-scoring single - his 13th hit in 36 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Wainwright retired the next two batters to escape the frame.

Pittsburgh loaded the bases with one out in the second, but curveballs struck out Bay and LaRoche as Wainwright escaped again.

In the fourth, Duke, Jose Bautista and Sanchez delivered consecutive on-out singles. Bay hit a sacrifice fly and LaRoche struck out looking.

The Pirates were just one for nine with the bases loaded including five strikeouts.

"We had a chance offensively to change the complexion of the game dramatically," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "We had the bases loaded in the first, second and fourth innings and we got a broken bat single and a sacrifice fly.

"That's a lot of opportunities that got away."

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single in the second inning.