By ,
Published February 05, 2015
St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Edinson Volquez fired his second career complete game and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-1, in the finale of a four-game set.
Volquez (8-6) struck out five, scattered six hits and walked two in his first complete game since July 19, 2012.
"Maintained velocity, attacked the zone, a very, very good effort. He gave everyone in the bullpen a night off," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said of Volquez.
Russell Martin smacked a solo homer among his three hits and two RBI, while Andrew McCutchen posted two hits, two RBI and a pair of runs scored for the Pirates, who salvaged the final game of the set after dropping the first three.
Shelby Miller (7-8) surrendered four runs on five hits and four walks over five frames for St. Louis, which had won six of its last eight coming in.
"Didn't do a good job of getting ahead in the count, fell behind a lot," Miller said.
The game was tied 1-1 through four innings, before the Pirates plated three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth to surge ahead.
Jordy Mercer worked a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fifth and advanced to second on Volquez's sacrifice bunt. Gregory Polanco then coaxed a free pass and Mercer scampered to third on a Josh Harrison flyout. McCutchen slapped a single to right to bring home Mercer and Neil Walker split the gap in right- center to score Polanco and McCutchen for a 4-1 lead.
Tyler Lyons replaced Miller in the sixth and served up a single to Pedro Alvarez to begin the bottom of the frame. Mercer then reached when Lyons committed a throwing error on a grounder back to him, and Volquez laid down a bunt which allowed Alvarez to go to third, though Mercer was out at second on the force when Jon Jay retrieved Matt Carpenter's throw into center field and stepped on the bag.
After Polanco walked to load the bases, Josh Harrison whacked a ground-rule double to left-center to plate Alvarez and Volquez. A passed ball allowed Polanco to score and Harrison came home on McCutchen's sacrifice fly to center, which staked the Pirates to an 8-1 advantage.
Martin's solo shot in the ninth capped the scoring.
Earlier, Pittsburgh opened the scoring on Martin's RBI single in the first inning, but the Cardinals got the run back in the third on Matt Carpenter's sacrifice fly.
Game Notes
The Pirates had won six of their last seven games coming into the series ... Pittsburgh was 4-for-11 with runners in scoring position, while the Cardinals finished 0-for-3.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/volquezs-gem-lifts-pirates-past-cards