Albert Pujols seems to have found his power stroke, knocking in 4 on a double and home run to push his batting average to .378 in the Cardinals’ 8-2 win over the Giants in San Francisco tonight. Kyle Lohse gave up his first runs of the season but pitched well to push his record to 2-0.
The Cards were down 2-1 in the 5th inning when Cesar Izturis singled to left and advanced as Skip Shumaker reached on an error by San Francisco second baseman Ray Durham. Albert Pujols took advantage of the mistake by blasting a Barry Zito offering to deep left field, giving St. Louis the 4-2 lead. Brian Barton also had a big day for the Cards, going 2-5 with a double and 2 RBI as the starting left fielder. Troy Glaus and Ryan Ludwick each added an RBI a piece, Ludwick’s on a solo homer in the 9th inning to put the game on ice. Skip Shumaker continued his solid play from the leadoff spot, going 3-5 and scoring 4 runs while adding an outfield assist to help starting pitcher Kyle Lohse. Lohse saw his ERA rise to 1.04 after giving up the 2 runs on 8 hits over 5 1/3 innings, continuing the surprising trend of stellar starting pitching from the Cardinals staff.
Todd Wellemeyer (1-0, 2.25 ERA) will try to continue that trend as the Cardinals go for yet another series win Saturday at 3:05 (Central time) against Giants righty Matt Cain (0-1, 3.60 ERA).
