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Gorzelanny baffles Cardinals

Apr 17, 2007 - 10:43 PM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Tom Gorzelanny never has been better.

Gorzelanny came within two outs of his first career complete game and Adam LaRoche belted a three-run homer to lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Behind Gorzelanny and LaRoche, the Pirates completed a two-game sweep of the world champion Cardinals, who fell to 1-6 at home. St. Louis swept a three-game set at Pittsburgh last week.

"We were not ready to play today and that is my fault," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "This has been very strange."

"I am glad we are going away then, so we can play better," said Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols, who went 0-for-3 as his batting average fell to .160. "I have seen what this team can do."

Gorzelanny (2-0) baffled the Cardinals for a second time this season, allowing one run and four hits in 8 1/3 innings en route to the longest outing of his three-year career. The lefthander walked three and struck out two.

"Everyone expects to do well, and that's what I expect," Gorzelanny said. "It is exciting that I have gotten off to this kind of start. I really wanted to do it (complete game). Every starter wants to finish it himself. It will come someday. The important thing is we got the win."

Last Tuesday, Gorzelanny limited the Cardinals to four hits over seven scoreless innings, leaving with a 2-0 lead before the bullpen squandered the lead.

"They are the big dogs in our division, and it is good to get out there and shut them down," Gorzelanny said. "If we can keep doing that, you're going to be seeing a lot of good things out of us."

After retiring David Eckstein to start the ninth, Gorzelanny was pulled in favor of Matt Capps after giving up a double to So Taguchi and walking Albert Pujols.

Capps struck out Scott Rolen and Preston Wilson, helping the Pirates improve to 6-2 on the road. They are 0-4 at home.

Mired in a horrific 4-for-38 slump to start the season, LaRoche launched his second homer of the campaign against St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright, a shot over the right field wall with one out in the third to give the Pirates a 5-0 lead.

"I had no idea what he was going to pitch," LaRoche said. "He has three solid pitches. His curveball is obviously phenomenal we have all seen that. He missed up and in on the fastball, and I got a hold of it. I do not know how it stayed fair, the way things are going, but it did. As soon as I hit I thought, 'Oh, that's foul.' I have had some pretty well-hit balls go right at people, so that was nice."

In the first inning, the Pirates took advantage of errors by Eckstein at shortstop and Wilson in right field to grab a 2-0 advantage. Jack Wilson and Xavier Nady made the Cardinals pay for the mistakes by delivering run-scoring singles.

Wainwright (1-1) surrendered five runs - four earned - and eight hits in six innings. The righthander walked three and struck out four.

"I threw a lot of pitches over the plate, just bad, bad pitches," Wainwright said. "I am really getting tired of telling all the media folks that it was not good because I feel like I have been doing that a lot lately. So results-wise, it finally caught up to me."

Gary Bennett lofted a sacrifice fly in the fifth for St. Louis, which has been held to three runs or fewer in 10 of its 13 games.