Coverage of today's Cards and Brewers game can be heard on Newstalk 97.3 WTIM beginning at 6:35pm.

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.