Reds ace Volquez breaks skid as Pirates tumble, 5-1

Brandon Phillips and Javier Valentin homered for Cincinnati at PNC Park.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Edinson Volquez pitched into the seventh inning to snap a post All-Star break slump and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1 Tuesday night in their first game since they traded Adam Dunn.

Brandon Phillips and Javier Valentin supplied the power with Dunn gone, each hitting a home run to help Cincinnati end a season-worst six-game skid. Corey Patterson had two hits and two RBIs.

Volquez (14-5) had just two perfect innings but limited the Pirates to one run and five hits in 62‚Ñ3 innings. The All-Star right-hander entered 1-2 with a 6.64 ERA in four starts since the break.

Phillips hit a two-out, two-run homer in the first off Jeff Karstens (2-1), who tossed 15 scoreless innings in his first two starts after he was acquired from the New York Yankees. Valentin went deep in the fourth, and Patterson had run-scoring hits in the sixth and eighth.

Karstens allowed four runs, three earned, and seven hits in seven innings.

Karstens, Brandon Moss and Andy LaRoche, all recently acquired in trades, each played their first home game at PNC Park. LaRoche had an RBI double in the fourth.

Doug Mientkiewicz, who scored on LaRoche’s hit, ended two possible Pittsburgh rallies.

He grounded out with runners on second and third in the fifth and again in the seventh with the bases loaded.

Chris Gomez and Nate McLouth had two hits apiece for Pittsburgh.

Notes

Cincinnati traded Dunn to Arizona Monday for a minor leaguer and two players to be named. ... RHP Tanner Scheppers, Pittsburgh’s second-round draft choice out of Fresno State, threw in the bullpen before the game. Scheppers, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, is unsigned. ... Pirates closer Matt Capps, on the DL with right shoulder bursitis, pitched a scoreless inning and struck out two in his first rehab appearance with Double-A Altoona. ... Pirates 1B Adam LaRoche, on the disabled list with a strained rib cage, went 2-for-4 in the second game of a rehab stint with Class A Hickory. ... Pirates SS Jack Wilson and 2B Freddy Sanchez, each hampered by minor right shoulder problems, were not in the starting lineup.

Sanchez grounded out as a pinch hitter in the ninth. ... Cincinnati improved to 2-9 since trading Ken Griffey Jr. to the Chicago White Sox July 31.