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Pujols, Edmonds spark Cardinals past Nationals

May 27, 2007 - 6:16 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- After winning the World Series last season, the St. Louis Cardinals have had their troubles in the scoring department. They can only hope Saturday marks their offensive resurgence.

Jim Edmonds had three RBI and Albert Pujols scored three times as the Cardinals posted an 8-6 victory over the Washington Nationals.

St. Louis, which has suffered from an inconsistent offense all season and is the lowest-scoring team in the majors, received large contributions from two of their longtime stars.

"The guys in the middle with clutch hits, that's how you get eight runs," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "I think we're going to be fine."

With the Cardinals trailing, 1-0, in the bottom of the first, Edmonds hit a two-run single to right-center off Nationals starter Levale Speigner (1-1), scoring Pujols and Scott Spiezio. In the third, Edmonds singled to left to score Pujols once again and increase the Cardinals' advantage to 3-1.

"(Edmonds) has been swinging better," La Russa said. "He's a quality guy and he should be fine as we go through the season."

Pujols scored his third run in the fourth as Scott Rolen roped a double - the Cardinals' only extra-base hit of the contest - down the right field line. It was the first time in over a month that Pujols scored three times in a game.

Pujols, who led the majors in runs scored for three straight season from 2003-2005, has scored no fewer than 112 runs in any of his previous six major league seasons. After crossing the plate three times Saturday, he has scored 25 runs through 46 games. David Eckstein finished with three hits for the Cardinals, who won for the fourth time in five contests.

"It's fun to see," said Cardinals starter Brad Thompson of the offensive output. "Seeing the guys swinging the bats, the guys are coming around (and) hitting the ball hard. It's a step in the right direction."

"We've been playing good," Cardinals outfielder Chris Duncan said. "We just have to keep going. We just need to focus on playing hard everyday and win every game."

St. Louis starter Brad Thompson (3-1) yielded three runs and 10 hits with a walk and two strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. Three relievers yielded a run and a hit over the next 2 2/3 innings going into the ninth before turning it an 8-4 lead over to reliever Kelvin Jimenez in an 8-4 contest.

"I didn't have my best stuff today but I got through a few innings," Thompson said. "I'd like to do a lot more with 100 pitches than five and a third, but we'll take it. It's a win."

Jimenez, who had two scoreless outings since his seven-run implosion in one-third of an inning against the Detroit Tigers on May 18, could get just two outs as he surrendered two more runs, narrowing the lead to 8-6.

That prompted St. Louis manager Tony La Russa to call on closer Jason Isringhausen, who yielded a single to Dmitri Young before the game was delayed one hour and 41 minutes by rain showers that had been lingering throughout the contest.

"It was our fault (not finishing the game before the rain delay)," La Russa said. "We had a couple of relievers that needed relief. We should have closed those innings out sooner and we wouldn't have had to worry about it."

Isringhausen came back after the delay to retire Jesus Flores and notch his 13th save in 14 chances.

Speigner allowed eight runs and eight hits with three walks and a strikeout over 3 1/3 innings. The 26-year-old righthander has failed to last more than four frames in any of his three starts since joining the rotation and has surrendered 17 runs in that time.

"It wasn't a very good outing (for Speigner)," Nationals manager Manny Acta said. "It put a lot of stress on our bullpen. We have five days. We're going to have to evaluate the situation and see what the alternatives will be."

Austin Kearns had three hits and Ryan Zimmerman added two more for the Nationals, who lost for only the fifth time in the last 16 games.

"We felt like we should have gotten some runs early," Kearns said. "We had our chances to score runs and open it up for our offense and we just didn't get it done, but we made a run there at the end."