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Duncan, Pujols power Cardinals' rout of Cubs

Jul 27, 2007 - 4:20 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Cardinals used the home run ball to avoid a sweep.

Chris Duncan hit a grand slam and Albert Pujols belted a three-run homer as the Cardinals rolled to a 11-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs.

Scott Rolen added a solo blast for St. Louis, which salvaged the finale of a three-game series against its National League Central Division rival.

"It was a big win especially after losing those first two," Duncan said. "I think it was important that we came out and had a good game today and then we can get rolling for Milwaukee."

Cardinals starter Braden Looper (8-8) was the beneficiary of the run support as he won for only the third time in his last 11 starts.

Looper allowed one run and five hits in bouncing back from a dreadful performance in his last outing, when he was hammered for seven runs and 10 hits in just 2 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked two.

"Definitely after how lousy I felt the last one was, I felt good today," Looper said. "I felt like I was in control of my delivery the whole time. I felt like I made a lot of good pitches. Fortunately in the fifth inning when Duncan hit that home run, I think that's the first time I've ever gotten a grand slam when I'm pitching. Pretty quickly it goes from 1-0 to 5-0 so that's pretty nice as a starting pitcher."

"He's a very tough guy, tough competitor," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He was ready today. He's an aggressive guy. He's going to end up with double- figure wins."

Cubs starter Jason Marquis (7-6) was battered for six runs and five hits in five innings by his former teammates. He allowed four walks and had just one strikeout.

"I got myself behind the eight-ball by walking a few guys and not getting outs when I needed to," Marquis said. "I tried to bear down and make perfect pitches and I wasn't able to. They just hit the mistakes and that's what it comes down to."

Marquis, who came in 2-0 with a 1.98 ERA in his previous two starts against St. Louis this season, yielded Rolen's blast in the fourth before running into trouble in the fifth.

After allowing a single to Aaron Miles, Marquis walked Looper. David Eckstein sacrificed the runners and Marquis followed by walking Jim Edmonds to load the bases.

Marquis hit Pujols to plate Eckstein and keep the bases loaded for the hot-hitting Chris Duncan, who homered into the Cardinals bullpen for a 6-0 lead.

It was his 20th home run and second grand slam of the season for Duncan, who is batting .393 (22-for-56) in July. His last grand slam came at Oakland on June 16.

"He made some good pitches on me early and then after that I just tried to battle," Duncan said. "I fought off some pitches in and I was just waiting for something out over the plate. I just wanted to put the ball in play and give myself a shot at a hit."

Derrek Lee homered for the Cubs to cut the deficit to 6-1, but the Cardinals responded with four runs in the bottom of the frame against reliever Billy Petrick.

Looper helped himself with an RBI single and Pujols drilled a three-run shot, his 23 of the season, to turn it into a 10-1 laugher.

Pujols had two hits and drove in five runs for the Cardinals, who snapped a four-game losing streak vs. Chicago and avoided a three-game sweep which would have been the first by vs. the Cubs since 1988.

"We won two out of three here and let's go to Cincinnati and try to do the same," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.