PITTSBURGH – Pinch-hitter Jose Castillo singled home the winning run with two outs in the 11th inning Thursday and the Pittsburgh Pirates, taking advantage of an earlier ejection, beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4.

The Pirates won their second in a row following a streak in which they lost 14 of 16 after the All-Star break.

An error by shortstop David Eckstein helped Pittsburgh put runners on first and second with no outs in the 11th against Brad Thompson (6-5). Ronny Paulino then bunted into a double play, leaving Ryan Doumit at second base.

Castillo, the last position player left on the Pirates’ bench, batted for Salomon Torres (1-3) and singled. Adam Kennedy, playing right field for the first time in his career after Scott Spiezio had been ejected, made a soft and off-line throw that let Doumit score easily.

Spiezio was tossed by plate umpire Bob Davidson for arguing a called third strike call that ended the top of the 10th.

Ronny Paulino homered for the second straight night for Pittsburgh.

Albert Pujols hit his 24th home for the Cardinals, who have lost two in a row after having a four-game winning streak snapped.

The Cardinals scored three times in the fourth off Shane Youman, capped by Aaron Miles’ two-run double.

Pittsburgh tied the game in the fifth on RBI doubles by Jack Wilson and Nate McLouth and a sacrifice fly from Jose Bautista off Anthony Reyes.

Until that burst, Reyes had allowed only two baserunners. The Cardinals lost 11 of his 12 starts before he was demoted Triple-A, but he has pitched better in his two starts since being recalled last week.

Paulino homered off Russ Springer in the sixth. Pujols tied it in the seventh with his 20th home run in PNC Park, the most of any opponent.

Making his sixth start of the season and ninth of his career, Youman allowed three runs on five hits and three walks in five innings. With this week’s acquisition of Matt Morris, Youman might have been auditioning to stay in the rotation.

Notes: Pujols has traditionally feasted on Pirates pitchers, but was hitting only .211 with no RBIs against them this season. He began the game with a .353 lifetime average against the Pirates and his 33 home runs against them is the most of any team he has faced. … The Cardinals’ 62 home runs at PNC Park are the most of any team.

AP-ES-08-02-07 1650EDT