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ST. LOUIS (AP) – Andy Benes put a dent in his unsightly ERA. Benes had his best outing of the season, allowing one run on two hits in six innings, in the St. Louis Cardinals' 8-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night. Extra work on the side with pitching coach Dave Duncan during a gap between starts might have been the key for Benes (2-2), who lowered his ERA from 8.10 to 6.89. Benes, who was pitching on seven days' rest, had walked five in each of his two previous outings, but walked just two against Pittsburgh. "It was more like the Andy we're used to," manager Tony La Russa said. "He and Duncan had a couple good sessions getting his delivery back to normal, and I think he's trusting his knee more." Benes underwent offseason arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and has been wearing a brace since the middle of last year. "I don't think it'll ever be healthy, but it's feeling a lot better," Benes said. "It's not a situation where it's going to be detrimental to me." Benes, who is 25-12 at Busch Stadium, didn't allow a hit until Jason Kendall's single leading off the fourth. With the help of a runner caught stealing and a double play, he pitched to the minimum through five innings before giving up an RBI double to Kendall in the sixth. The Cardinals scored six runs in the first off Jimmy Anderson, who had allowed only four runs in his previous four starts and 26 innings. The first six batters reached safely, including an RBI single by rookie Albert Pujols, a two-run single by Bobby Bonilla and a three-run homer by J.D. Drew. Drew has homered in consecutive games and has 14 RBIs in the last 10. He connected one pitch after complaining he was hit on the wrist, and La Russa came out of the dugout to argue as well. Drew has a team-leading 11 homers, three against left-handers. None of his 18 homers last year were against lefties. "Part of it is he didn't play against lefties too much because we had Shaun Dunston and Eric Davis," La Russa said. "It's part of him growing up." Anderson (2-2) gave up six runs, five hits and four walks in five innings. "He threw the ball pretty good after the first inning," Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said. "Unfortunately, he let the horse out of the barn." Bonilla added a run-scoring single in the seventh and Ray Lankford hit his eighth homer in the eighth. St. Louis is 10-4 against the Pirates the last two seasons and has outscored them 15-2 the first two games of a four-game series. "You see anything about there to be happy about?" McClendon said. "We need to play better and we will play better." Kevin Young added an RBI single off Steve Kline in the seventh. McClendon was ejected for the first time of his career, getting tossed by home plate umpire Ted Barrett for arguing a batter's interference call on Derek Bell. McClendon shot out of the dugout to argue the call and shot out a second time after getting ejected. Game notesBell, who went 0-for-3, is in a 2-for-31 slump and is batting .126 (17-for-103). ... Cardinals C Mike Matheny has thrown out nine of 13 runners attempting to steal. ... The NL Central champion Cardinals are 16-15, only the second time in 23 days they've been above .500. ... St. Louis reliever Jason Christiansen, activated from the disabled list on Monday from offseason shoulder surgery, made his debut in the ninth and retired one of two batters.  Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
| OTHER GAMES Baseball Scoreboard Pittsburgh Clubhouse St. Louis Clubhouse RECAPS Boston 12 Seattle 4
St. Louis 8
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