Bucs win; Jones homers in 11th

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Garrett Jones homered to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning and lift the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Jones connected on a 2-2 pitch from Arthur Rhodes (3-4) for his 14th home run. It was also Jones’ second career game-ending homer as he connected against San Francisco’s Bob Howry on July 17, 2009.

Center fielder Andrew McCutchen prevented St. Louis from going ahead in the top of the 11th when he made a running backhanded inning-ending catch to rob Albert Pujols of extra bases and keep Rafael Furcal from scoring from first base.

Chris Resop (4-4) pitched two scoreless innings for the win.

Pittsburgh tied the game in the ninth when Neil Walker homered on the first pitch from closer Fernando Salas. Walker, who has 10 homers, had not connected at home since June 5.

Salas, a rookie who suffered his fourth blown save in 27 opportunities, escaped further trouble when he got Brandon Wood to fly out and Ryan Ludwick to ground out with a runner on second base.

St. Louis had gone ahead in the top of the ninth on Matt Holliday’s sacrifice fly off closer Joel Hanrahan, snapping his streak of 15 consecutive scoreless innings. The Cardinals entered the day six games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central.

Albert Pujols reached 30 home runs for the 11th consecutive season when he connected in the sixth inning. The NL home runs leader is the first player in the major-league history to hit 30 homers in each of his first 11 seasons.

Pujols’ 28 career home runs at PNC Park are his most at any visiting stadium.

Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter struck out 10 in seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits with one walk.