Pujols and Pitching Combo Works Against Marlins Again, 3-1

[JJ]

History repeated itself Sunday as Albert Pujols blast was enough to put away the Marlins

Albert Pujols hit a two-run home run and Adam Wainwright worked eight stingy innings in the St. Louis Cardinals' 3-1 victory over the Florida Marlins on Sunday.

Aaron Miles tripled and scored on pinch hitter Josh Phelps' single in the seventh for an insurance run, helping the Cardinals take two of three for their first series win since Aug. 22-24, when they took two of three from the Braves. St. Louis has won only three of its last nine.

On his bobblehead giveaway day, Pujols drew a sellout crowd of 46,045 that gave the franchise 3 million in attendance for the fifth straight year and the 10th time in 11. The Cardinals are the fifth team in the major leagues to top 3 million, following the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers and Cubs.

Thousands of fans lined up hours before the game to make sure they got a keepsake. Pujols didn't disappoint them, hammering a 2-2 pitch from Josh Johnson (4-1) over the wall in left-center for a 2-0 lead.

Pujols also hit a two-run homer in the first inning of Saturday's 5-3 win and leads the NL with a .359 average.

Mike Jacobs hit his 30th homer leading off the second, his second of the series after homering for the first time in 70 career at-bats against the Cardinals on Friday. The Marlins need a homer from Hanley Ramirez to give them three 30-homer players for the first time in franchise history. Dan Uggla is also at 30 on the year.

Wainwright (9-3) allowed six hits and struck out six, with one walk, to beat the Marlins for the first time in four career appearances, including two starts. The only NL teams he has not beaten are the Mets and Padres.

Wainwright is 3-0 with a 1.78 ERA, 19 strikeouts and four walks in 25 1-3 innings over four starts since recovering from an injury to the middle finger on his pitching hand that sidelined him for two months. His only shaky sequence came in the second, when Uggla followed Jacobs' homer with a drive that center fielder Skip Schumaker ran down at the wall.

Rookie Chris Perez got the last two outs for his seventh save in 10 chances. He had blown his last two save opportunities and wasn't used on Saturday with Ryan Franklin finishing for his 15th save. Franklin was warming up after Uggla greeted Perez with a single.

Johnson allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings and took the loss for the first time since June 29, 2007 against the Braves. All four of his wins had come after a Marlins loss, and Florida fell to 9-3 in his starts.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...xP8pQD93243AO0

[Nny]

Did DLC throw in the high 90's today? He was only around 94 whe he was up before, fast but not upper 90's fast, but I also wondered if that was because he knew he was going multiple innings so he was taking some off his FB.

[Sashimi]

Originally Posted by Nny Did DLC throw in the high 90's today? He was only around 94 whe he was up before, fast but not upper 90's fast, but I also wondered if that was because he knew he was going multiple innings so he was taking some off his FB.

According to MLB Gameday he reached as high as 98 mph.

[Hugg]

97-97-96-98-97

[Nny]

holy shit nice

[mbaamin08]

This team is maddening. At the beginning of the year, the offense was unstoppable but the starting pitching was horrible. Now, the starting pitching is tremendous (for the most part) and the offense has flatlined. UGH!

I really have been holding on to hope that they would turn this around and make a run for the playoffs but now I think they just need to put the September call-ups in and let them audition for next year. They can't do any worse than what we're throwing out there everyday right now. Maybe they'll even score some runs!