Giants 5, Cardinals 0: Tim Lincecum followed up his no-hitter with eight strong innings and Pablo Sandoval hit his 100th career home run as San Francisco cruised past visiting St. Louis.

Hunter Pence doubled in a run and scored twice and Buster Posey added an RBI double for the Giants, who snapped a four-game slide. Lincecum (7-5) surrendered four hits and a pair of walks while striking out six, allowing his first hit with one out in the second to break up his streak of hitless frames that included a no-hitter against San Diego last Wednesday.

Marco Gonzales (0-1) made his second career start for the Cardinals and was knocked around for five runs on seven hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings. Jhonny Peralta doubled as St. Louis dropped to 3-5 on its 10-game road trip.

Gonzales matched Lincecum through the first three innings but ran into trouble in the fourth when Pence led off with a single to center. Posey followed with a double just inside the line in left to plate Pence before coming in on Sandoval’s towering home run to left.

Pence sent an RBI double into the gap in left-center in the fifth and came home on Hector Sanchez’s groundout later in the frame. The Cardinals squandered their best opportunity in the fourth, when they loaded the bases with no outs before Lincecum struck out two and induced a groundout.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Giants improved to 5-15 in the last 20 games. … San Francisco CF Angel Pagan was on the verge of being activated from the DL but suffered a setback and will visit a specialist in Los Angeles on Wednesday. … St. Louis top prospect RF Oscar Taveras made his first start since being recalled on Monday and went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.