Kenny Rogers pitched well early and was looking to hold on to a slim lead, but the Cardinals were able to get to him and break the game open in the 6th inning and Braden Looper help on long enough to earn his 9th win of the year in the Cardinals’ 8-4 win over the Tigers last night.
Looper was not on top of his game, giving up solo home runs to Pudge Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera early and a 2-run shot to Gary Sheffield in the 7th, but he pitched well enough to win, limiting the damage to just those 4 runs over 6 innings of work. Leftfielder Brian Barton provided the early offense for St. Louis, hitting an RBI double in the 3rd, then a solo home run in the 5th before being pulled for pinch-hitter Skip Shumaker in the 6th. Shumaker made Tony LaRussa look good by knocking in 2 more runs on a single that at-bat. Yadier Molina was 3-5 with 2 runs scored while shortstop Brendan Ryan was 3-4 with a run and 2 RBI from the bottom of the order.
Kyle Lohse (9-2, 3.63 ERA) will lead the Cards into action tonight at 6:05 pm (Central time) against Tigers’ rookie righty Armando Galarraga (7-2, 3.03 ERA).
