James A. Finley, Associated Press Cardinals Albert Pujols celebrates following his three run homer that scored Chris Carpenter and David Eckstein in the seventh inning last night in St. Louis. Click photo for larger image. More Pirates Coverage: Pirates recall Snell Pirates Notebook: A different sort of star pitch Collier: Perez could allow more home runs than any Pirate hits Paul Meyer's Baseball Notebook: The BIG, BAD and modest White Sox?

ST. LOUIS -- It's a good thing this wasn't a fireworks night or else the sellout crowd at Busch Stadium would have had to sit around and wait for it to get dark.

The sky was still blue when the sun set on the Pirates, who ran into a buzz saw in St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Chris Carpenter.

Carpenter (7-6) was nearly untouchable, mowing down the Pirates in an 8-0 win that took only 2 hours, 9 minutes. He gave up four hits, faced two batters over the minimum, struck out 11, and walked none in his third complete-game shutout this season. It was his third win in his past three starts, and no runners reached second,

"He had everything working for him," Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said. "All his pitches were in the strike zone down."

Carpenter had about the same explanation.

"I was pretty good tonight," he said quietly. "I kept the ball down in the strike zone, spotted both sides of the plate. I feel like I've been pretty consistent."

For the second night in a row, St. Louis lived off the long ball. Jim Edmonds, Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols hit home runs, accounting for six of the Cardinals' runs.

St. Louis pounded out 11 hits against left-hander Mark Redman (4-6) and reliever Ryan Vogelsong. Redman lasted five innings, allowing five runs and two of the homers.

"They hit all my mistakes," said Redman, sounding a lot like Kip Wells after his 8-1 loss Friday. "It's a strong lineup, and they capitalized on every bad pitch."

Redman lost for the second start in a row and has given up 11 earned runs on 18 hits over 12 innings in those two games.

The Pirates' offense could be summed up briefly.

Catcher David Ross, the No. 8 batter, hit a single to left-center with one out in the third. Jose Castillo hit a grounder up the middle with one out in the fifth for the second hit, but he was erased on Jack Wilson's double-play ball.

In the eighth, Daryle Ward led off with a single to right but was doubled up on Castillo's grounder.

Matt Lawton got the Pirates' fourth and final hit with two outs in ninth and was stranded.

The Cardinals got busy in the third. Molina cranked a home run to left to lead things off, his second homer in as many games. David Eckstein doubled to left with one out and scored ahead of Edmonds, who hit his third homer in the past two days to make it 3-0.

The onslaught continued in the fourth. Mark Grudzielanek singled, advanced on a balk and scored from second on So Taguchi's infield single. Castillo ranged deep from second to get to Taguchi's grounder but he couldn't pick it up cleanly and his throw home couldn't get Grudzielanek.

After Molina singled to center, sending Taguchi to third, Carpenter picked up an RBI with a squeeze bunt to the mound that made it 5-0.

Albert Pujols hit his 20th home run in the seventh, a three-run shot to left, to make it 8-0. One of the runs was unearned as Carpenter reached first on Castillo's fielding error to start the inning.