Pirates Pound Cardinals, 15-1

(Wednesday, August 1st) Final Score: Pittsburgh 15, St. Louis 1 Pittsburgh, PA (Sports Network) - Ronny Paulino belted a grand slam as the Pittsburgh Pirates routed the St. Louis Cardinals, 15-1, in the second of a three-game series at PNC Park. Adam LaRoche and Jack Wilson also homered and Freddy Sanchez had four hits for the Pirates, who behind a 20-hit attack snapped a four-game losing streak and won for just the third time in 17 games since the All-Star break. "I think it was just an all-around good effort by everybody, said Sanchez. "Lets not kid ourselves weve all been struggling since the all-star break. It just feels good that everybody was able to contribute tonight." Pittsburgh starter Tony Armas (1-3) went 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits, while striking out five and walking one. Aaron Miles homered for the Cardinals, who had a four-game winning streak squashed. St. Louis starter Braden Looper (8-9) was tagged for seven runs on eight hits with one walk and no strikeouts. With two outs in the first, Freddy Sanchez, LaRoche and Jason Bay hit consecutive singles to score a run. Ryan Doumit then walked loading the bases for Paulino, who smashed a 2-1 pitch over the left field fence. "Its extremely frustrating," said Looper. "I didnt even give us a chance today. We were down 5-0 before you knew it. You cant throw the ball up in the zone. My mechanics were terrible." The Pirates added two more runs in the third on LaRoches one-out solo homer to right, his 15th of the year, and Wilsons two-out RBI single. Miles put the Cardinals in the board in the top of sixth with his first homer of the season, a drive to right. However, Wilson got the run back for the Pirates in the home half when he smacked a homer to left, his fifth of the year. Pittsburgh poured it on with seven more runs in the eighth off Mike Maroth. Pinch-hitter Jose Castillo was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Nate McLouth hit an RBI single, Jose Bautista a two-RBI single and Sanchez an RBI ground-rule double. LaRoche then scored one with a groundout and Bay capped the rally with an RBI double. Game Notes Armas, who was making his first start since he lost his spot in the rotation due to ineffectiveness in late May, hadnt won since beating the Mets while with Washington on Sept. 24, 2006...Paulinos grand slam was the first of his career and Pittsburghs first this season. He was booed loudly when first introduced because of his two key fielding mistakes that helped St. Louis to a 6-4 victory Tuesday...Pittsburgh had season highs in runs (15) and hits (20)...Attendance was 17,041.