Less than 24 hours after his first blown save, Pirates closer Salomon Torres gave up Chris Duncan's pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning that lifted the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-2 victory this afternoon at PNC Park, as well as a sweep of the three-game series.

The score was 2-2 when Torres was summoned for the ninth. He retired David Eckstein on a flyout, and St. Louis manager Tony La Russa sent Duncan to the plate instead of So Taguchi despite Taguchi's 3-for-3 output to that point.

It paid off.

Duncan tore into a 2-2 sinker that had little sink and sent it into the center-field seats to break the tie.

On Tuesday, Torres blew a two-run lead, also when entering the game against the top of the St. Louis order. The Cardinals went on to win, 3-2, in 12 innings.

"I'll put it behind me," Torres said in fielding questions at his stall for nearly 20 minutes. "I'll give it my best the next time out."

He blamed a lack of aggressiveness in his approach, something he said he detected in watching video of his work Tuesday.

"I have to get that back," he said. "When I throw that pitch, I have to believe in it. I have to have everything behind it. I can't just send it up there."

Manager Jim Tracy blamed the continuing lack of offense far more than to Torres.

"You don't point the finger at Salomon Torres when there's absolutely no margin for error whatsoever," Tracy said. "We've got four, five, six guys off to slow starts."

The Pirates, batting .190 with runners in scoring position entering this one, went 2 for 10 on this day. They stranded 13 runners in all, including Jason Bay after a one-out walk in the ninth. Xavier Nady popped out, and Brad Eldred grounded to third.

"We're just not getting big hits when we need them," Freddy Sanchez said.

One sign of that futility: It took the Pirates four hits to score one run in the fourth. That came on Humberto Cota's RBI single to left. After that, the bases were loaded for Jack Wilson, but he flied out to center for the third out.

St. Louis answered with two off Paul Maholm in the fifth.

Aaron Miles led off with a four-pitch walk, was bunted to second and scored on Eckstein's single just inside the right-field line. Taguchi's double pushed Eckstein to third, and an intentional walk to Albert Pujols filled the bases. Preston Wilson fought off an 0-2 pitch for a dribbler to third that went for an infield single and moved the Cardinals ahead, 2-1.

Maholm was done after that inning, having given up two runs on seven hits and three walks with an inefficient pitch count of 96.

The Pirates rallied to tie in the seventh off St. Louis starter Adam Wainwright.

Pinch-hitter Don Kelly was hit by a pitch to get it started, then took second on Chris Duffy's walk. Jack Wilson bunted them over, and Freddy Sanchez pushed Kelly across with a sacrifice fly to center. Wainwright walked Bay and was replaced by Russ Springer, who walked Nady to fill the bases.

Eldred gave the first pitch he saw quite a ride, but Taguchi tracked it down near the 410-foot North Side Notch.

Although seven men went to the plate, Eldred's marked the only official at-bat of the inning.

Adam LaRoche and Ronny Paulino, each struggling mightily at the plate in the early going, was held out of the Pirates' starting lineup for issues not related to performance. LaRoche was out because of lower back stiffness that he first felt Tuesday, Paulino because he caught all 12 innings that night.

The Pirates, who fell below .500 for the first time at 4-5, are off tomorrow before opening a weekend set against the San Francisco Giants.

"We're waiting on our offense," Tracy said. "That's what's holding us up."

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.