Gorzalanny Dominates Cards; Tracy Wins 500th

Pittsburgh Pirates young southpaw Tom Gorzelanny tossed a four-hit gem Tuesday afternoon while allowing just one earned run in 8.1 innings of work, and the Pirates went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1 for a two-game series sweep at Busch.

Gorzelanny entered the contest with an 8 inning scoreless streak going all the way back to his last frame on April 10th, and had a no-hitter going through the first four innings today.

In the fifth, Scott Rolen hit a ground ball right up the middle for the Cardinals first hit and he eventually scored when Preston Wilson doubled past Jose Bautista into the left field corner breaking Gorzelanny's 12 consecutive scoreless innings streak. It would be the only run the Cardinals would get all day.

Adam Wainwright took the mound for the Cardinals and was off the mark most of the day and unable to get his velocity higher than 89 mph. With three gold glove fielders behind him, the Cards committed two uncharacteristic errors in the first inning to allow two Pirates runs.

Adam LaRoche came back from an 0-2 count to tomahawk a Wainwright heater over the right field wall to score three more runs, Xavier Nady then singled in the 7th, and Ronny Paulino hit a gapper into right center for a double to score Nady for the final run.

Defensively, Jose Castillo made three unbelievable plays on the day keeping Gorzelanny's no-hit bid intact including a line drive hammered off the bat of Pujols in the first for an inning ending double play. He also had one error when a little ground ball took a tricky last minute hop on him, but the next batter hit into an inning ending double play.

The Pirates win marked Jim Tracy's 500th as a manager and it was extra special because it was the first time the Pirates have won two straight in St. Louis since 2003. Tracy becomes the 12th active manager in the 500 club.

Now with a 6-2 record on the road, the Bucs have notched a 2-1 away series record and won their 6th on the road almost two months earlier than their June 9th sixth win in 2006. They head to Milwaukee to play the Brewers knowing they have won nine of their last thirteen against the Brew Crew.

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Freddy Sanchez was a late scratch due to a tender left wrist.. Gorzelanny threw 109 pitches and now has a 2.17 ERA over his last 70.1 innings of work (11 starts).. the Cards have now lost six of seven at home in 2007 but are 23-7 in day games at the new Busch since the start of 2006.. Wednesday's match up in Milwaukee include Paul Maholm (0-1, 5.40 ERA) vs. RHP Claudio Vargas (0-0, 5.14 ERA).