Wainwright, Peralta Pace Cardinals Past Pirates
By R.B. FALLSTROM
AP Sports Writer
ST. LOUIS (AP) Adam Wainwright became the majors' first five-game winner and Jhonny Peralta ended the St. Louis Cardinals' 366 at-bat homerless drought with a pair of long balls and four RBIs in a 7-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.
Matt Holliday, Allen Craig and Yadier Molina also had RBIs for the Cardinals, who totaled five runs in their previous four games. St. Louis took two of three from the Pirates, shutting them out in both wins.
Edinson Volquez (1-2) gave up six runs in 5 2-3 innings for Pittsburgh, which has dropped five of six. His day unraveled after the Pirates' appeal of a potential double-play ball was denied and first baseman Ike Davis' foot was ruled off the bag in the sixth inning.
Craig's two-out bloop single made it 2-0 the next at-bat, his first RBI in eight games. Peralta followed with a three-run homer on a full count for a 5-0 lead that chased Volquez, who's 3-6 with a 5.66 ERA in 12 career starts against St. Louis.
Peralta also homered leading off the fifth, the Cardinals' first since Craig on April 16 at Milwaukee. He has six homers, the most ever by a Cardinals shortstop in the opening month of the season and one more than Edgar Renteria hit in 2000.
Wainwright (5-1) allowed three hits in eight scoreless innings and hasn't allowed a run in 25 consecutive innings. He stayed on turn after tweaking his right knee trying to cover first in his last start at New York and had seven strikeouts with two walks.
Wainwright's only loss came April 6 at Pittsburgh when he allowed two runs in seven innings but lost 2-1 in another matchup with Volquez, with the win going to reliever Tony Watson.
On Sunday, Wainwright retired nine straight before hitting Jose Tabata with a breaking ball with one out in the sixth. Pedro Alvarez singled with two outs, but Wainwright got Neil Walker on a called third strike.
Matt Adams tripled off Jeanmar Gomez in the eighth and scored on Molina's sacrifice fly.
NOTES: Michael Wacha (2-2, 2.10) opposes Yovani Gallardo (2-0, 1.42) Monday in the opener of a three-game series between the Cardinals and Brewers. ... The Pirates have a day off before opening a two-game series at Baltimore with Charlie Morton (0-3, 4.35) opposing Chris Tillman (3-1, 3.38). ... Matt Carpenter and Yadier Molina received Silver Slugger awards in a pregame ceremony. ... Peralta has eight career multihomer games, the previous on July 29, 2012, at Toronto.
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