ST. LOUIS -- Daryle Ward has had a lot of good days since being recalled from the minors earlier this month. On Wednesday night, he had the best game of his career.
Ward hit for the cycle and tied his career high with six RBI in the Pittsburgh Pirates' 11-8 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Ward and his father, Gary, who did likewise with the Minnesota Twins on Sept. 18, 1980, became the only father-son combo to ever accomplish the feat.
"I don't think you can expect anybody to be as productive as he's been in the short amount of time he's been here," manager Lloyd McClendon said. "Certainly, we were hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.
"Like I told our general manager, we deserve some lightning."
Jack Wilson was 4-for-6, drove in a run and scored three times while raising his average to .363 for the Pirates, who have won six of their last seven on the road.
Ward, recalled from Triple-A Nashville on May 11, hit a two-run double in the first, an RBI triple in the fourth off Jason Marquis, golfed a three-run homer off Kiko Calero in the fifth and singled off Steve Kline in the ninth.
He's the first Pirates player to hit for the cycle since Jason Kendall on May 19, 2000, against the Cardinals. It's been done 23 times in franchise history by 20 players.
"The fans were reminding me I had a chance for that," Ward said. "I was on deck and they were like 'I know you're not thinking about the single.'
"It feels good to be able to contribute."
Ward's cycle is the second in the majors this season. Milwaukee's Chad Moeller did it April 27 against Cincinnati.
Ward is batting .380 with six homers and 16 RBI in 50 at-bats.
The triple was a line drive over the head of right fielder Reggie Sanders, who opened a gate when he bashed into the wall and missed a leaping attempt. Ward got to third standing up.
"He crushed that ball," Sanders said. "I mean, he really crushed that ball."
The Pirates were 8-for-18 with runners in scoring position, ending an 0-for-27 slump in their previous four games. Pittsburgh also improved to 14-8 on the road, and 6-13 at home.
Kris Benson (4-3) tired in the seventh, finishing with 119 pitches, but benefited from the support to win for the first time in four starts since April 30. He gave up seven runs on 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Jim Edmonds hit his 11th homer and Marquis (3-4) got his second hit and second RBI for the Cardinals, who have lost three in a row. St. Louis is 10-14 at home and 13-8 on the road.
The Cardinals trailed 10-2 in the fifth before making it close with a run in the sixth and four in the seventh that cut the gap to 10-7. But St. Louis also was plagued by indifferent defense, although no official errors were committed.
"We just didn't have good pitching and defense," manager Tony La Russa said. "That's the way I saw the game. Why single anything out?"
The start of the game was delayed one hour and 21 minutes by rain, and it might have thrown off Marquis. He threw 99 pitches in four innings, his shortest outing of the season.
Marquis was wild high, giving up six runs on nine hits with four walks and five strikeouts.
The first three Pirates reached in the first and Ward's two-run opposite-field double gave Benson an early lead. Craig Wilson had an RBI double and Bobby Hill had a run-scoring single in the third.
Ward and Rob Mackowiak drove in a run apiece in the fourth, and Ward's homer capped a four-run fifth that made it 10-2.
Marquis' two-out RBI single in the second was his second hit in 21 at-bats. Scott Rolen's two-run single highlighted a four-run seventh, raising his major league-leading RBI total to 45.
Notes
- Edmonds is 9-for-19 against Benson with two homers and two doubles. He was 3-for-5 overall in the game.
- Ward also had six RBI against the Brewers on April 3, 2001.
- Benson has beaten the Cardinals more than any other team, going 7-3 with a 4.38 ERA.
- The Pirates have scored in double figures four times, the last in an 11-2 victory May 13 at Colorado.
- The Cardinals lead the NL with 39 steals and were 2-for-2 against the Pirates' Jason Kendall, who had thrown out nine of 19 runners.
- Kendall was 3-for-5 and is 20-for-54 (.370) during a 12-game hitting streak, the Pirates' longest of the season.
- La Russa used his 32nd different lineup in the first 45 games, but he left the starting eight unchanged from Tuesday night's rain-postponed game.
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