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Walker homers, Correia goes seven as Pirates top Cardinals

Apr 7, 2011 - 12:15 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Neil Walker homered and Kevin Correia turned in seven scoreless innings as Pittsburgh downed St. Louis, 3-1, in the finale of a three-game set from Busch Stadium.

Correia (2-0) limited the usually dangerous St. Louis lineup to five hits and two walks in seven strong innings, fanning three. Joel Hanrahan allowed an RBI double to Yadier Molina in the ninth but recorded his fourth save.

"He was very efficient today," said Pirates manager Clint Hurdle about his starter. "They were just off-balance, he left balls in and kept them honest, then worked down and away...he spotted the ball effectively and his change-ups were also in play."

Lyle Overbay finished with two hits and drove in a run for the Pirates, who took the rubber game of the series and have won three of four.

Skip Schumaker tallied two hits for the Cardinals, who have dropped four of six to begin the year.

Chris Carpenter (0-1) allowed eight hits and two runs -- one earned -- with six strikeouts over six full frames.

Ryan Doumit's fourth-inning RBI double put the Bucs on the board. Overbay, who began the frame with an infield single, came home on the hit.

Walker slammed his second homer of the season -- a solo homer to right -- to make it 2-0 for Pittsburgh in the fifth.

Meanwhile, Correia didn't allow a runner to reach third until the home fifth, but worked out of a first-and-third, two-out situation by inducing a fly out from Colby Rasmus.

In the top of the ninth, Andrew McCutchen hit a ground-rule double to the gap in right-center then Overbay bounced one just inside the line in right to score the visitors' third run.

Hanrahan then gave up a leadoff double to Lance Berkman and two groundouts moved him to third before Molina's two-bagger produced the Cards' lone run. Daniel Descalso popped out to short to end the contest.

"It's only the first week of the season," said Cardinals skipper Tony LaRussa. "It's something I don't want to see with the talent we have. We did put some balls in play, right on the barrel, but we didn't have that big-scoring run we need."

Game Notes

Pittsburgh has won consecutive road series for the first time since August 20-26, 1997 at Colorado and Houston...The Pirates finished just 17-64 on the road in 2010...Carpenter reached the 1,500-strikeout mark in the second inning...Doumit stayed in the game despite being struck in the side of the head by a follow-through swing by Molina in the seventh.