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Blue Jays top Cardinals

Jun 26, 2011 - 5:08 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Juan Rivera hit a three-run homer and Edwin Encarnacion smacked a solo shot, as the Blue Jays beat the Cardinals, 6-3, in the middle contest of a three-game series.

Carlos Villanueva (5-1) limited the Cardinals to two runs in six innings to pick up the win, which came a little bit easier than Friday's.

Jose Bautista homered in the ninth inning of the series opener to lift the Jays to a 5-4 victory, but Saturday, they plated five runs in the third inning alone.

While four of them were unearned, the rally still meant St. Louis starter Jaime Garcia (6-3) took the loss. He pitched seven innings, giving up five hits and walking four.

Matt Holliday grounded into a double play with runners on the corners to put the Cardinals on the board in the first inning, but the Blue Jays took control soon after.

Garcia walked Villanueva on five pitches to open the third inning, then threw a strike and four consecutive balls to Yunel Escobar.

"What I try to do is make him throw as many pitches as possible," Villanueva said. "I know when I'm out there I don't want to go in deep counts with the pitcher, because it gets your pitch count up. But a couple close pitches, and it went my way."

After Aaron Hill grounded out to move the runners into scoring position, Garcia intentionally put Bautista on base.

Adam Lind lifted a sacrifice fly to center to make it a 1-1 game, and another run scored when third baseman Daniel Descalso committed a throwing error during J.P. Arencibia's at-bat.

The mistake proved costly. Garcia threw a 1-0 changeup down and in to Rivera, who turned on the pitch and crushed it to left for a 5-1 lead.

"I don't think he's real happy with his game," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of Garcia. "That's a good example: walk the first two guys, that really puts you in the position where something bad could happen."

Yadier Molina got one of the runs back in the fourth with an RBI single, but Villanueva shut St. Louis down in the fifth and sixth. Jon Rauch and Marc Rzepczynski kept it a 5-2 game through the eighth.

Encarnacion homered to left leading off the top of the ninth, and the Cardinals got their final run in the home half. With runners on the corners and two outs, Frank Francisco fielded a grounder from Skip Schumaker and made an errant throw to first. But he retired Ryan Theriot to end the game.

Game Notes

The teams went a combined 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position...Holliday was ejected in the eighth inning after being called out on strikes...Garcia suffered his first home loss of the season. He had been 4-0 with a 0.81 ERA in six starts prior to Saturday.