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Pineiro sharp as Cardinals cruise past Pirates

Apr 25, 2008 - 3:14 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Joel Pineiro went back to basics and the St. Louis Cardinals went back to winning.

Pineiro tossed seven strong innings in his third start of the season to lift the Cardinals to a 6-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night.

Pineiro (1-2), who began the season on the disabled list and had an 8.10 ERA over his first two starts, held the Pirates to one run, five hits and a walk. He had six strikeouts after not recording any in his two losses.

"I thought he was outstanding from the first pitch to the last pitch," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He made so many quality throws. In a game with no scoring until the middle, he gets a great chance to show what he can do, and he pitches outstanding."

The righthander improved to 3-0 lifetime with a 1.74 ERA against the Pirates.

"I had confidence out there," Pineiro said. "I was getting ahead of hitters, and that was a big key to the day. I kept the ball down and hit my spots. If you can do that, a lot of good things are going to happen. You get a lot of ground balls, get a lot of early outs, and that keeps the pitch count down so you can get deep into the game."

Yadier Molina went 3-for-5 with two doubles and a run scored, Skip Schumaker drove in a run and scored another and Albert Pujols reached safely five times for the Cardinals, who had lost four of their previous five games.

The teams combined for only one hit through the first three innings, but the Pirates finally got on the board in the fourth, when a two-out double into the gap in left-center field by Adam LaRoche plated Ryan Doumit.

LaRoche went 2-for-4 and Doumit scored both of the Pirates' runs.

Tom Gorzelanny had a no-hitter through 4 1/3 innings, although he issued seven walks and threw 86 pitches. Then the Cardinals finally broke through.

After Gorzelanny walked the bases loaded, Brian Barton delivered St. Louis' first hit of the game with a single to right-center field that scored Pineiro and Brendan Ryan. Pujols followed with an RBI single to make it 3-0.

"We got a lot of clutch hits," La Russa said. "That's what you have to do to win. (On Wednesday), the Pirate got them and won, but today, we got them."

Ryan, who was recalled from the minors on Wednesday, went 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs and an RBI while batting ninth in the order.

"It feels pretty good," Ryan said. "Being that second leadoff guy, my job is to get on base for the 1-2-3 guys to drive me in."

The fifth was the final inning for Gorzelanny (1-3), who issued more walks than any Pirates pitcher since Oliver Perez also issued seven on June 23, 2006 at Dodger Stadium.

"Tom never really found any kind of release point," Pittsburgh manager John Russell said. "He got out of some jams with some guys on base, but it eventually caught up to him. When you're spraying the ball that much, you're putting a lot of pressure on yourself, and it caught up with him eventually."

Gorzelanny allowed three runs and two hits with four strikeouts. He has walked 22 batters in 22 1/3 innings this season.

"(The ball) is not doing what I want it to do, and I'm not happy with what's going on," said Gorzelanny, who went 14-10 last season. "I feel like I'm really close to getting back to what I had last season. I can be there, but I just need to get over that (hump)."

The Cardinals added to their lead against reliever Phil Dumatrait in the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Ryan and Schumaker's run-scoring double. Troy Glaus scored St. Louis' final run in the ninth, when Aaron Miles grounded into a double play.

Pittsburgh added a run in the ninth on Barton's throwing error.

Xavier Nady singled in the inning to extend his career-high hitting streak to 12 games for the Pirates, who have lost eight of 10.