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Pujols, Schumaker lead late homer barrage for Cardinals

Jul 23, 2007 - 5:09 AM ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Albert Pujols and Skip Schumaker victimized a porous Atlanta Braves' bullpen.

Pujols tied the game with a homer in the eighth inning and Schumaker broke the tie with a two-run homer in the 10th to power the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-2 win over the Braves on Sunday.

With the game tied in the 10th, Atlanta called on Tyler Yates to keep the Cardinals at bay. However, the 29-year old righthander (2-2), who surrendered eight runs in over his past six appearances, once again faltered.

Yates surrendered a leadoff single to Aaron Miles before striking out David Eckstein, bringing up Schumaker. The lefthanded-hitting Schumaker, who entered the game with just 23 homers in 2,501 minor league at-bats and two homers in the majors, broke the tie by sending a two-run shot into the bleachers down the right field line.

"I'd definitely not a power hitter," Schumaker said. "When I hit them, it's pretty much luck. I was just happy it stayed fair."

"He's gained some experience and got some confidence," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "That was a heck of a win for us. A lot of good things happened."

Scott Rolen, who missed the Cardinals' last four games with an inflammation in his left shoulder, added a three-run shot off Oscar Villareal to extend the lead to 7-2.

"It's like anything else, guys struggle at the plate and guys struggle on the mound," Chipper Jones said. "I have confidence in everybody who walks out on the field. We just got to work a little bit harder to get better results."

"It's not every day (the bullpen is) going to get the job done," Andruw Jones said. "They are human. We had opportunities to score runs as an offense and we didn't take advantage of it. When you lose, you lose as a team."

Jason Isringhausen (4-0) pitched two perfect innings to notch the victory.

The Braves took at 2-1 edge into the eighth, when Atlanta manager Bobby Cox called on the struggling Rafael Soriano, who allowed five runs and seven hits in his previous 3 1/3 frames.

The 27-year old Soriano blew his third save opportunity over his last five games by surrendering a two-out homer to Pujols to knot the game at 2-2 and deny Atlanta rookie Jo-Jo Reyes' bid for his first win in his third career start.

"It's all location," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "Soriano was locating good until the one pitch (to Pujols). It just went out. It's all about location. You just have to locate."

"You can't make a mistake to a player the caliber of Albert Pujols and expect to get away with it," Chipper Jones said.

Pujols homered despite tweaking in his right oblique during the contest.

"It's fine," Pujols said. "I stayed in the game. It wasn't bothering me. You think I would be swinging like that (on the home run) if it was?"

Atlanta's top pitching prospect, Reyes allowed one run and three hits, walking four and striking out three in 5 1/3 frames. The lefthander threw 52 of his 92 pitches for strikes to lower his ERA from 8.68 to 6.14.

"I felt fine out there, a lot better," Reyes said. "I just had more confidence in every pitch tonight."

The Braves had a chance to answer right away, loading the bases with two outs in the eighth against Ryan Franklin. However, the reliever induced rookie Jarrod Saltalamacchia to line to shortstop to end the threat.

Chipper Jones gave Atlanta, which had won 14 of its last 22 games, a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the fourth.

Kelly Johnson extended the Atlanta advantage to 2-0 one frame later when he smashed the 0-1 offering from St. Louis starter Brad Thompson into the right field bleachers for his 10th homer of the season.

St. Louis halved the deficit in the sixth on RBI groundout by Juan Encarnacion.

Atlanta finished its 10-game homestand against the mediocre Pirates, Reds and Cardinals a disappointing 5-5.

"We blew way too many games this homestand," Cox said. "We could have had a dynamite homestand. With a couple of clutch hits and better location, we could have gone 8-2."

Thompson allowed two runs and six hits in six solid frames for the Cardinals, who split the four-game set.