This is a little late, but so goes the holiday weekend. The Cardinals were Red(bird) hot, but the Padres cooled them off a little on the west coast.
On Friday, Jeff Suppan couldn’t get the job done and by the end of the third inning, the Cards were down 6-1. Suppan dropped to 5-4 and Albert Pujols (go figure) drove in the only Cards run.
On Saturday, we had the return of Sidney Ponson, and Ponson did just enough to win this one. He gave up two runs on seven hits with four strikeouts over five innings and he improved to a still perfect 4-0. The Padres did tag Adam Wainwright for a run in the sixth to make it 4-3, but that would be the extent of the scoring. Scot Rolen went two for four with two RBIs and a run to lead the way on offense.
Sunday was a brutal game for the pitching. It was a very solid pitching matchup with Mark Mulder going up against Jake Peavy but a huge inning by both teams in the fifth inning blew this game apart. The Cards scored five in the top of the fifth while the Padres answered with eight. Mulder dropped to 5-3 and Albert Pujols hit his 25th homerun of the season. The final was 10-8.
Houston comes to town for a three game series, and since I’m writing this on Tuesday, we already know the Cards took the first game and they’ve extended their lead to a comfortable five games.
