Pirates 2, Cardinals 1: Tony Sanchez drove in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning as Pittsburgh defeated Adam Wainwright to win the rubber game of its home series with St. Louis.

Neil Walker drove in the other run against Wainwright (1-1), who allowed five hits and a pair of walks over seven innings in his first start against the Pirates since dominating them twice in last year’s National League Division Series. Andrew McCutchen doubled and scored early in the game for the Pirates, who improved to 4-2 despite scoring four runs or fewer for the fifth time in six games.

Edinson Volquez went the first 5 2/3 innings for the Pirates, yielding one run and three hits. Tony Watson (1-0) escaped a first-and-third jam in the sixth and tossed a perfect seventh before Mark Melancon needed only six pitches to get through the eighth and Jason Grilli worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth to pick up his first save.

The Pirates got on the board in the fourth when McCutchen doubled with one out and Walker followed with a double two batters later. The lead did not last long, as the Cardinals tied things up in the sixth on John Jay's triple to right-center that scored Matt Carpenter.

One inning later, Sanchez's two-out shot into the right-center gap brought home Pedro Alvarez, who had led off the seventh with a walk. Grilli allowed a free pass to Jay to begin the ninth before Matt Holliday bounced into a double play and Matt Adams grounded out to end it.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Wainwright went 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA against the Pirates in last year's playoff series, including a complete-game performance in the Cardinals' decisive 6-1 victory in Game 5. ... Cardinals SS Jhonny Peralta went 0-for-3 and has only two hits in 21 at-bats, both of which were home runs. ... The No. 3 through No. 8 hitters went 0-for-19 for St. Louis, which managed only three hits and has alternated wins and losses in its six games.