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Ten-run fifth fuels Cardinals over Padres

Aug 7, 2007 - 3:37 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Cardinals exploded in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring 10 times and tying a major-league record with 10 consecutive hits en route to a 10-5 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday.

The 10 consecutive hits tied a major league record set by the Kansas City Royals on September 9, 2004, when they accomplished the feat in the third inning against the Detroit Tigers.

The Cardinals started the fifth with the first 11 batters reaching base, 10 on hits.

The first six batters reached on singles before Scott Rolen launched a three-run homer, his eighth of the season, into the Padres bullpen to extend the lead to 7-3. That shot also ended the night for Padres starter David Wells (5-8), who surrendered seven runs on 11 hits in four innings.

"I thought David's stuff was fine," Padres manager Bud Black said. "I think the only balls hit hard that inning were a single by (Juan) Encarnacion and then Scott Rolen's home run."

"(Wells) was throwing a slow curve ball and keeping guys off balance," Rolen said. "He threw the first one to me and I didn't take a great swing, but I was able to stay on the second one a little better."

Mike Thompson didn't provide much relief for the Padres as Ryan Ludwick deposited the righthander's first pitch into the seats in center field for his ninth home run of the season.

"You can't go up to the plate, first pitch, not looking to swing," Ludwick said. "You've got to be looking to hit. (Thompson) threw a pitch in the strike zone and I hit it."

The Cardinals added two more runs in the inning on a single by Aaron Miles and a sacrifice fly by David Eckstein. In all, St. Louis sent 13 batters to the plate in the frame.

"Everything goes right in that inning," said Miles who extended his hitting streak to 11 games. "It was fun, it was a great inning, we needed it."

"The way the inning went, it was a lot of good aggressive swings," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "Up and down the lineup, it was really impressive."

The 10 runs were the most given up by the Padres in an inning since they surrendered 11 runs in the first inning to the Cardinals on May 8, 2005.

"Things just began to snowball," Padres second baseman Geoff Blum said. "That's the beauty and tragedy of the game. There was nothing we could do, we couldn't make a play on a ball because they were just far enough out of reach to fall for a hit. Then Rolen and Ludwick dropped those two bombs which pretty much finished us off."

The Padres took the early lead on a solo home run by Adrian Gonzalez in the top of the second inning. The blast was Gonzalez's 18th of the year.

San Diego stretched its lead to 3-0 in the top of the fifth inning as Geoff Blum hit his second home run of the year after Josh Bard singled.

But it all fell apart for the Padres in the bottom of the inning.

"It was disappointing," Bard said. "You look at the scoreboard and you see a lot of zeroes but you see a big huge 10 in the middle. Even if we had kept it to four or five, we would have had a chance to win the game."

San Diego scratched for two more as Khalil Greene hit his 18th home run of the season, a solo shot, in the top of the seventh inning before Bard hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth, plating Morgan Ensberg.

After a terrible start in his last outing, St. Louis starter Braden Looper (9-9) surrendered four runs, scattering six hits over 6 1/3 innings.

"I felt good physically," said Looper, who also added two hits in the Cardinals' big fifth inning. "I didn't necessarily have my best stuff but I was able to compete with it. I've either been really good or really bad. Today I was able to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win."