RED HOT PUJOLS LEADS CARDS' ROUT OF BUCS
St. Louis Wins 9th Straight
ST. LOUIS, May 23 (AP) - Albert Pujols continued his recent torrid hitting,
belting a pair of home runs and driving in five as the St. Louis Cardinals
pummeled the Pittsburgh Pirates, 12-2, at PNC Park. Pujols homered for the
first time on April 3, his third game of the season, and then went dry until May
9--a span of 31 games. But in the past two weeks, Pujols has homered eight
times, including six in his last eight games. In his last 13 games the
Cardinals left fielder has driven in 18 runs and scored 19 times. In 21
games thus far in the month of May, Pujols is hitting .422 with 16 extra base
hits.
The Cardinals scored all the runs they would need in the first inning off
Pirates starter Salomon Torres (1-7). Fernando Vina led off with a single
and, one out later, Pujols singled him to second. Jim Edmonds' base hit
plated Vina with the game's first run and chased Pujols to third. Scott
Rolen's sacrifice fly to left scored Pujols and back-to-back singles off the
bats of Edgar Renteria and Tino Martinez capped the scoring for the frame.
The Pirates got a run back in the second when Aramis Ramirez led off with a
double and scored one out later on Jason Kendall's single. But St. Louis
took firm command of the contest with three more runs in the third, with
considerable help from Pittsburgh's defense. Pujols led off by reaching on
shortstop Jack Wilson's two-base throwing error and Edmonds followed with a base
on balls. Rolen hit a potential double play ball to third baseman Ramirez
who booted it, filling the bases. Renteria then singled in a pair of runs
and a fielder's choice off the bat of Martinez upped the Cardinals' lead to
6-1.
Pujols' one-out two-run homer in the fourth gave the Cardinals an 8-1
advantage. The Pirates cut the deficit to six runs in the bottom of the
fourth on Reggie Sanders' RBI ground out, but that was as close as Pittsburgh
would get.
St. Louis put the game away with four more runs in the eighth. Facing
southpaw reliever Joe Beimel, pinch hitter Eduardo Perez drew a lead off walk
and advanced to second one out later on J.D. Drew's single. Pujols
followed with his second home run of the game--a three-run shot--to put the
Cardinals on top, 11-2. Edmonds and Rolen followed with back-to-back
doubles to complete the scoring.
Jason Simontacchi tossed seven solid innings for the Cardinals, improving to 4-1
in the process.
It was the ninth straight victory for St. Louis; the Cardinals remain in second
place in the National League Central, just 1/2 game behind the Chicago
Cubs. The winning streak is the longest by a National League team to date
this season and ties the major league mark, held by the Boston Red Sox, who
opened the season by winning nine in a row, lost a single game, then immediately
ripped off another nine-game winning streak.
5/23/2003, StL03-Pit03, PNC Park 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 2003 Cardinals 3 0 3 2 0 0 0 4 0 12 11 0 9 2 2003 Pirates 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 7 3 5 0 Cardinals AB R H BI AVG Pirates AB R H BI AVG Vina 2b 6 1 2 0 .255 Lofton cf 3 0 1 0 .300 Drew,J rf 4 2 0 0 .266 Wilson,J ss 4 0 0 0 .197 Cairo lf 0 0 0 0 .196 Giles,B lf 4 0 2 0 .338 Pujols lf 5 4 3 5 .392 Ramirez,A 3b 4 1 1 0 .249 Fassero p 0 0 0 0 .000 Sauerbeck p 0 0 0 0 .000 Edmonds cf 4 3 2 1 .299 Simon 1b 4 1 1 0 .222 Rolen 3b 4 1 1 2 .259 Kendall c 4 0 1 1 .276 Palmeiro,O rf 0 0 0 0 .359 Sanders,R rf 3 0 0 1 .308 Renteria ss 5 0 2 2 .295 Nunez,A 2b 3 0 0 0 .222 Martinez,T 1b 5 0 1 2 .197 Torres,S p 0 0 0 0 .091 Molina,G p 0 0 0 0 .000 Young,K ph 1 0 1 0 .236 Delgado,W 3b 0 0 0 0 .167 Mahomes p 0 0 0 0 .000 Matheny c 4 0 0 0 .221 Mackowiak ph 1 0 0 0 .209 Simontacchi p 3 0 0 0 .000 Tavarez p 0 0 0 0 .000 Perez,EA ph 0 1 0 0 .265 Hyzdu ph 1 0 0 0 .238 40 12 11 12 Beimel p 0 0 0 0 .000 Reboulet 3b 0 0 0 0 .250 32 2 7 2 Cardinals INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Simontacchi W 4-1 7.0 6 2 2 2 1 85 50 4.82 Molina,G 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 9 7 0.00 Fassero 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 9 7 6.61 9.0 7 2 2 2 1 103 64 Pirates INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Torres,S L 1-7 3.0 6 6 3 1 1 59 38 5.29 Mahomes 2.0 1 2 2 1 0 29 15 3.00 Tavarez 2.0 1 0 0 1 3 27 17 3.81 Beimel 1.0 3 4 4 2 0 33 18 7.53 Sauerbeck 1.0 0 0 0 2 1 17 6 4.11 9.0 11 12 9 7 5 165 94 StL: Perez,EA batted for Simontacchi in the 8th Perez,EA moved to 1b in the 8th Cairo inserted at lf in the 9th Palmeiro,O inserted at rf in the 9th Delgado,W inserted at 3b in the 9th Pit: Young,K batted for Torres,S in the 3rd Mackowiak batted for Mahomes in the 5th Hyzdu batted for Tavarez in the 7th Reboulet inserted at 3b in the 9th E-Wilson,J, Ramirez,A, Mahomes. 2B-Edmonds(11), Rolen(14), Giles,B 2(14), Ramirez,A(9), Simon(8). HR-Pujols 2(9). RBI-Pujols 5(31), Edmonds(33), Rolen 2(41), Renteria 2(23), Martinez,T 2(18), Kendall(14), Sanders,R(26). K-Drew,J, Edmonds, Rolen, Renteria, Simontacchi, Mackowiak. BB-Drew,J 2, Pujols, Edmonds, Matheny, Perez,EA 2, Lofton, Sanders,R. SF-Rolen. GWRBI: Edmonds Temperature: 57, Field: wet, Sky: clear, Wind: in from right at 1 MPH. Attendance: 21,787 Game Time: 2:36