Anytime you see the words “record” and “win” it’s a good thing. The Cardinals won their 17th game on Sunday to finish out the month and that’s a franchise record. They did it by taking three of their four games against the Washington Nationals, and more importantly, they now find themselves tied for first place in what’s turning out to be a tough NL Central.
Sidney Ponson remained perfect with a solid start to kick things off on Thursday. He gave up two runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. He’s now 3-0. Juan Encarnacion scored twice and Jim Edmonds homered and drove in three runs in the 6-2 win.
Jason Marquis took the only loss for the Cardinals in his start on Friday. The Nationals jumped all over him and even though he lasted five innings, he gave up seven runs on eight hits. Albert Pujols homered and drove in two runs. He also had two of the Cardinals five hits in the game.
The Red Birds got back on track Saturday with a 2-1 win. Chris Carpenter was awesome as usual. He gave up a single run on nine hits in seven innings. The Cardinals scored the winning run in the eighth on Albert Pujols 14th homerun of the season. That homerun broke the record for the most by a player in the month of April. Scott Spiezio drove in the other Cardinals run.
Yesterday, it wasn’t even close. The Cardinals scored eight runs in the final four frames to blow out the Nationals 9-2. Encarnacion homered and scored twice. Jim Edmonds drove in three runs and Aaron Miles scored three times. Jeff Suppan improved to 2-2 and gave up two runs on five hits in six innings of work.
Now the Cardinals head to Cincinnati for a two game series. Oddly, which ever team wins out will be in first place. This would be a great time for the Cardinals to put some distance between them and their so called division rivals.
