• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Pujols blasts Cardinals past Cubs in extras

Jun 5, 2011 - 4:38 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Albert Pujols went 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI, including the game-winning solo shot in the 12th inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium.

Lance Berkman chipped in with a hit and an RBI and Matt Carpenter added a double, his first career hit in his first major league start, helping the Cardinals to their second straight win to open the three-game series.

Eduardo Sanchez (2-1) threw two scoreless innings to pick up the win for St. Louis.

Kosuke Fukudome had three hits and an RBI and Carlos Pena added two hits, including his eighth home run of the season for Chicago in a losing effort.

Jeff Samardzija (3-2) gave up the winning hit to absorb the loss and push the Cubs' losing streak to five games.

Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse tossed 5 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on 11 hits while walking one and striking out five.

Chicago starter Randy Wells went 5 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on only three hits while striking out one and walking one.

The Cardinals' winning moment came with two outs after Ryan Theriot flew out and Jon Jay lined out, as Pujols stepped up and deposited a hanging slider from Samardzija over the wall in left-center field.

"It wasn't a bad pitch. I was just thinking to hit the ball hard in the middle and not pull the ball, so that, hopefully, we can all go home happy," Pujols said about his last at-bat.

St. Louis opened the scoring in the fourth. Theriot led off the inning with a walk, and Pujols followed one batter later by blasting a 2-1 pitch by Wells deep into the seats in center to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

Chicago took the lead with four runs in the sixth. Starlin Castro led off with a single and Pena followed with a rocket into the center-field seats to tie the game at two.

The Cubs weren't done, however. Geovany Soto laced a one-out double to left- center and Tony Campana singled to center to score Soto. Wells singled to right, followed by a Fukudome ground-rule double to score Campana.

St. Louis tied the game with two runs in the sixth. Theriot stroked a one-out single to right and scored on an RBI double by Pujols, which cut the Cubs' lead to 4-3, and Berkman followed with an RBI single to center to score Pujols and knot the game at four.

"I thought we made a couple pitches there but if a guy like that is hitting, whatever you think is a good pitch, it probably has to be a little bit better," Samardzija said about Pujols.

The Cardinals loaded the bases with one out in the 10th after Theriot reached on an error by Blake DeWitt, Jay singled and Pujols was intentionally walked. Carlos Marmol came in and struck out Berkman and got pinch-hitter Tony Cruz to fly out.

Game Notes

This is the second of a 10-game road trip for Chicago...Cardinals outfielder Allen Craig went 1-for-3 and has hit safely in 13 of his last 16 games...Theriot extended his hitting streak to a career-high 18 games with a single in the sixth inning...The Cubs are 11-14 on the road this season...Chicago's 3-4-5 hitters have combined for only 10 home runs, the fewest total from that portion of the lineup in baseball...Pujols' home run was his third in his last six games...The Cubs are 2-1 in extra-inning games, St. Louis is 4-4...The walk-off home run for Pujols was the ninth of his career.