The Cardinals’ offense came alive in their 11-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants tonight at Busch Stadium, overshadowing another fantastic outing from starting pitcher Todd Wellemeyer. Wellemeyer is the poster boy for the Cardinals’ pitching staff, another former reliever who has joined Dave Duncan’s Land of Misfit Toys to absolutely shut down opponents as the team waits for its actual starting pitching staff to get off the disabled list.
Wellemeyer allowed only 1 run over 7 innings on 4 hits, striking out 6 and walking only 2 to push his record to 2-0 on the year. The offense was clicking all game but really got rolling in the 6 run 4th inning. Already holding a 3-1 lead, St. Louis scored 2 more on a 2 run, 2 out single by Skip Shumaker. After a Chris Duncan walk, Albert Pujols came to the plate and absolutely crushed the Matt Cain offering into Big Mac Land. Adam Kennedy would knock in Rick Ankiel a few batters later to put the finishing touches on the devastating inning.
The top of the Cardinals’ order was a regular murders’ row for Matt Cain as leadoff man Shumaker was 2-4 with 3 runs and 2 RBI, while 2 hitter Chris Duncan went 2-3 with 3 runs and 2 RBI, including a 2 run homer in the 3rd. Albert Pujols had another strong performance, going 2-4 with a run and 4 RBI. Wellemeyer was the only St. Louis regular not to get a hit on the game.
Joel Pineiro (0-1, 14.73 ERA) will try to work out the kinks in his second start after coming off the DL, facing Giants righty Tim Lincecum (2-0, 2.25 ERA) tomorrow afternoon at 12:10 pm (Central time).
