The Pirates were beaten in both the early and late innings in an 8-4 loss to the Cardinals Thursday night.

Charlie Morton began by allowing an Albert Pujols RBI double and a Lance Berkman single in the first, and the Cardinals were up 3-0 after two. Morton allowed five runs in 4.1 innings, giving up nine hits in the process.

The Pirates scored four runs in the third and fourth and found themselves down one in the fifth after Morton allowed a two-run single by David Freese. After that, Chris Leroux did a nice job keeping the Bucs in the game, with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief.

Tony Watson came on in the bottom of the eighth, however, and allowed a three-run homer to Matt Holliday. That was far too much for the Pirates to overcome, and they lost, 8-4.

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