Cards win, leapfrog Pirates behind Wainwright

NATIONAL LEAGUE

CARDINALS 5, PIRATES 0

ST. LOUIS — Adam Wainwright bounced back from back-to-back subpar outings with seven shutout innings and David Freese homered to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night.

The victory moved the Cardinals into first place, a half-game ahead of the Pirates in the NL Central with their third victory in four games. Pittsburgh has lost 4 of 6 including the first two of the three-game set. The Pirates remain stuck on 81 victories, one shy of assuring them a winning record for the first time since they went 96-66 in 1992.

Wainwright (16-9) had given up 15 earned runs over his previous two starts, both against Cincinnati. He allowed a career-high nine runs in two innings of a 10-0 loss Aug. 28. But he regained his form against the Pirates, allowing two hits. He struck out eight and walked two.

Wainwright, who ended his performance with four successive strikeouts, is tied with Jordan Zimmermann of Washington and Jorge De La Rosa of Colorado for the most victories in the NL.

Freese drove in two runs for the Cardinals, who moved into sole possession of first place for the first time since Aug. 29. Matt Holliday, Pete Kozma and Daniel Descalso also added RBI.

Freese hit a home run off reliever Jeanmar Gomez in the sixth to push the lead to 4-0.