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Cardinals pound Cubs

Jul 31, 2011 - 1:36 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Ryan Theriot's three-run double capped an eight-run fifth inning Saturday as the St. Louis Cardinals erupted for a 13-5 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Theriot finished with four hits, Albert Pujols hit a solo homer and David Freese had a two-run homer and three RBI for the Cardinals, who have taken the first two games of this three-game series by a combined score of 22-7.

The Cubs, who have lost five in a row, scored all five of their runs in the first inning off Kyle Lohse, who settled down to pitch four sparkling innings after that to get the win.

Chicago had two of its three hits in the inning -- Geovany Soto's two-run double and Alfonso Soriano's three-run homer -- before Lohse (9-7) retired the next 12 batters in a row.

"You can't give Kyle enough credit," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. "A real rough start and then all of a sudden he shuts them down. That's baseball."

The Cardinals sent 12 batters to the plate during the fifth inning, taking a 10-5 lead with a rally that included two doubles, two singles, five walks and an error. Two of the walks were intentional.

The inning lasted around 30 minutes. During it, Cubs manager Mike Quade was ejected for arguing with second base umpire Derryl Cousins about Matt Holliday's hard slide into Chicago shortstop Starlin Castro on a force play that scored two runs.

Holliday slid hard into Castro, throwing his legs out to break up the chance of an inning-ending double play. Five more runs scored after the play, which left Castro with a ripped sock from Holliday's spikes.

"Momentum in the game is huge," Quade complained.

The Cardinals have won six straight games against the Cubs. Their fifth-inning rally knocked Chicago starter Rodrigo Lopez out of the game.

Lopez (2-3) had a two-decision winning streak snapped in his seventh start -- and 17th appearance of the season. He gave up six runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings.

All of the five first-inning runs charged to Lohse were unearned after leadoff hitter Castro reached on an error by Cardinals shortstop Daniel Descalso. A sacrifice bunt and two walks set up Soto's two-out double. Soriano followed with his 16th homer of the season to make it 5-0.

Pujols' 2,001st career hit was a line-drive homer in the bottom of the first, his 24th of the season. Skip Schumaker added an RBI single, but the Cardinals' comeback didn't begin in earnest until the fifth.

Besides Theriot's three-run double, Yadier Molina had an RBI single off Jeff Samardzija during the outburst. Two other runs scored on walks to Holliday and pinch-hitter Tony Cruz. Theriot also had a single earlier in the inning.

Lohse snapped a four-start winless streak (0-3) and picked up his first victory since June 28. The 32-year-old righty improved to 2-4 against the Cubs, who drafted him in 1996.

Freese hit a two-run home run in the sixth while Theriot added an RBI double in the seventh to account for the final score.

Game Notes

Pujols has 432 career homers, moving him ahead of Cal Ripken for 40th on the all-time list...The Cubs are 0-5 on a 10-game road trip. Their only hit after the first inning was Marlon Byrd's double in the ninth...The Cardinals had 12 hits.