ST. LOUIS -- Adam Wainwright decided to use a simple approach to break out of his two-game slump. The St. Louis right-hander bounced back from back-to-back sub-par outings with seven shutout innings and David Freese homered to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday night. The victory moved the Cardinals into first place, a half-game ahead of the Pirates in the NL Central. Pittsburgh has lost four of six including the first two of the three-game set. The Pirates remain stuck on 81 wins, one shy of assuring them a winning record for the first time since they went 96-66 in 1992. Wainwright (16-9) had given up 15 earned runs over his previous two starts, both against Cincinnati. He allowed a career-high nine runs in two innings of a 10-0 loss Aug. 28. But he regained his form against the Pirates allowing just two hits. He struck out eight and walked two. "The way to make pitching as simple as possible is to repeat your delivery and execute your pitches," he said. "My stuff tonight was drastically different because of that." Wainwright, who retired the last 11 batters and ended his performance with four successive strikeouts, is tied with Jordan Zimmermann of Washington and Jorge De La Rosa of Colorado for the most wins in the NL. St. Louis manager Mike Matheny was pleased to see his ace return to form. "Thats the same guy we expect to see every time out," he said. "He had it all working." Wainwright fashioned a 16.88 ERA in his two previous starts. "This time he was aggressive," catcher Yadier Molina said. "This is a long season and everyone is going to have slumps. Hes a tough guy. Hes going to battle." Wainwright threw first-pitch strikes to 14 of 24 batters. He gave up a single to Andrew McCutchen in the first and a double in the fourth. Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle was not surprised to see Wainwright bounce back. "He was down in the zone all night, he wore it out," Hurdle said. "He did what hes done for years." Freese drove in two runs for the Cardinals, who moved into sole possession of first place for the first time since Aug. 29. Matt Holliday, Pete Kozma and Daniel Descalso also added RBIs. "Weve been back-and-forth with them all year," Wainwright said. "Any time you can win against them, its a big win." Freese homered off reliever Jeanmar Gomez in the sixth to push the lead to 4-0. Pittsburgh left-hander Jeff Locke (9-5) allowed three runs on three hits over five innings. He was making his first start since Aug. 27. Locke was sent down to Double-A Altoona to clear his mind, but he did not make an appearance. "I felt refreshed, like I was re-charged," Locke said. Molina started a two-run outburst in the fourth inning with a double that followed a leadoff walk to Carlos Beltran. Freese then brought in Beltran with a sacrifice fly to left. Kozma added an infield single to bring in Molina., The Pirates are 9-9 over their last 18 games and they remain confident. "We need to step it up, to get going again," McCutchen said. "Weve just got to keep battling." Notes: RHP Michael Wacha (2-0, 3.20) will face Charlie Morton (7-3, 3.00) in the final game of the three-game series on Sunday. ... Pittsburgh has hit an NL-leading 79 home runs on the road. ... The Pirates have out-homered St. Louis 19-5 in the 18 games between the teams this season. ... St. Louis had nine successive hits in a seven-run seventh inning during Fridays 12-8 win. The nine in a row is the most by any team in the majors this season. cheap jerseys free shipping .com) - The Ottawa Senators will try to keep their slim playoff hopes alive when they face the Chicago Blackhawks who are trying to secure their place in the post-season. wholesale adidas nhl jerseys . Martin Reway and David Griger both recorded four points with a goal and three assists each. Mario Lunter, Daniel Gachulinec and Stanislav Horansky also scored for Slovakia (1-0). Dominik Kahun had both goals for Germany (0-2), who lost its opening match to Canada 7-2 on Thursday. http://www.cheapnflauthenticjerseys.net/. Hargreaves began his career in 2008 with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and has played with the Edmonton Eskimos and last season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. cheap nfl jerseys wholesale . He made that dream a reality Wednesday night. Olt, who grew up in Branford, Connecticut, attended UConn and made a nearly 2 1-2 hour trek to Boston a handful of times to watch the Red Sox, belted a two-run homer, one of four hit by Cubs in a 16-9 rout that completed a three-game interleague series sweep. wholesale nfl jerseys . On Thursday, they signed former Browns linebacker DQwell Jackson. Terms of the deal were not immediately available.BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. - Canadians are off to a positive start on the professional snowboard circuit this season.Sebastien Toutant and Tyler Nicholson placed second and third, respectively, in the mens slopestyle at the Dew Tour snowboard event on Sunday.Montreals Toutant opened with a 65.25 and improved to 87.75 on his second run for the runner-up position while Nicholson, in his Dew Tour debut, delivered two runs of almost equal value with 80.00 on the first and 79.50 on the second for third spot.It truly hasnt even sunk in yet, it feels like a dream, said Nicholson, of North Bay, Ont. Now that Ive landed myself on the Dew Tour podium Im hoping for an X-Games invite. My parents are in shock, theyre so stoked. They weree in tears when I called them.ddddddddddddChas Guldemond of the United States was the winner with 92.00 points on his first of two runs.Sochi Olympics bronze medallist and defending champion Mark McMorris of Regina was fifth and Michael Ciccarelli of Hamilton placed ninth.In womens slopestyle, Spencer OBrien of Courtenay, B.C., was fourth while American Jamie Anderson won the event for the third year in a row.In the halfpipe, the top Canadians were Derek Livingston of Aurora, Ont., and Torontos Katie Tsuyuki, who both made it to the semifinals in mens and womens competition.The Dew Tour is the first major international event this season on the professional snowboard circuit in slopestyle and halfpipe. ' ' '