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| Pujols carries Cardinals past Cubs ST LOUIS 5, CHICAGO CUBS 3 |
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ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Albert Pujols and Adam Kennedy both drove in two runs as the St. Louis Cardinals posted a 5-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs in Sunday's weekend series finale. Starter Todd Wellemeyer (3-1) went five effective innings for his first win in three outings in helping St. Louis became the second squad in the National League with at least 20 wins on the season. Wellemeyer gave up two runs and three hits with four walks and four strikeouts in his first career start against the Cubs, who drafted the righthander in the fourth round in 2000. "I felt decent all day and mentally I was in it the whole time," Wellemeyer said. "The changeup again was working good and hopefully that can continue. But there was nothing easy about at all. Not for any of us. We battled through and won." Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen retired the final three batters in the ninth for his 10th save of the season. "After what happened the other night, it's nice to go out there and get three outs," said Isringhausen, who suffered the blown save in Friday's series opener. "And I was able to face some of the guys that got me in that ninth." The 29-year-old Wellemeyer ran into some early trouble in the second inning. Reed Johnson delivered an RBI double to left and score on Alfonso Soriano's sacrifice fly one batter later for a 2-0 lead. But Wellemeyer helped his own cause in the bottom half with a single to right, sparking four straight hits off Cubs starter Jason Marquis to tie the game at 2-2. Kennedy and Skip Schumaker plated both runs. With the game still locked at 2-2 in the fourth, Pujols laced a two-run double into the left field corner against Marquis (1-2), who was a member of the Cardinals' 2006 World Series championship team. "I was just blessed that I got an opportunity to avenge myself and get the big hit for the team," Pujols said. "I'm just glad that I came through for my team and we came out with the win. That will show you the kind of team we have. A tough loss (Saturday), bounce back and win the rubber game and the series." Kennedy's RBI single off Chicago reliever Sean Marshall in the sixth added some insurance, making it 5-2. The Cubs had a chance to make things interesting in the seventh with the bases loaded and no outs. But St. Louis' bullpen only surrendered a sacrifice fly to Kosuke Fukudome to maintain the lead. "We had the bases load with no outs and our big people coming up," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "That's an inning there where you hit a ball in the gap or maybe even out of the ballpark. It's a big difference, but it just didn't happen. "Offensively we either have the nice big explosion or we seem to score three runs a lot. And we're not winning these 3-2, 3-1 ball games. We just got to keep working to get better." Marquis gave up five runs and seven hits with five walks in 5 1/3 frames. It was the second straight outing the righthander has allowed five runs over five innings. "Just got to go back to the basics," Marquis said. "I fell behind in the count too many times. I let the one guy in the lineup beat me that shouldn't have. I was just trying to make quality pitches and I put myself in a bad situation." |
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