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Cardinals ride Carpenter against O's

Jun 30, 2011 - 3:39 AM Baltimore, MD (Sports Network) - Chris Carpenter went the distance to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the middle contest of a three game interleague series at Camden Yards.

Carpenter (3-7) gave up a run on seven hits, fanned three and walked one in his second complete game of the season and 31st of his career. He finished the game with 132 pitches -- 91 strikes -- the most he has thrown in a start since he tossed 134 back in 1998 as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays.

"Yeah, it was a lot of fun, no question about it," Carpenter said. "I got myself in a bit of a jam there in the fifth but I was able to get out of it with some good pitches. "From that point on I controlled counts and controlled the game."

Colby Rasmus belted a two-run homer and Skip Schumaker added a pair of hits, including an RBI single for St. Louis, which has won back-to-back games after being swept in its previous series against Toronto.

Chris Jakubauskas (2-1) worked five innings in defeat for the Orioles, giving up five runs on seven hits while fanning a pair and walking three.

Nick Markakis accounted for the only run with an RBI double for the Orioles, who have lost seven of their past 11 games.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Lance Berkman worked a walk and Rasmus followed two batters later by blasting a fastball from Jakubauskas deep into the seats in right for his eighth home run of the season.

"I don't know if it's a trend, but if you give Carpenter a little cushion early on, it presents a challenge for you," Orioles' manager Buck Showalter said of his team's recent affinity for falling behind early.

St. Louis extended its lead in the third on an RBI single by Schumaker. Jon Jay followed with a single to left and Matt Holliday was plunked by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Berkman lofted a sacrifice fly to center to score Schumaker and give the Cardinals a 4-0. Baltimore escaped a huge inning when Jakubauskas induced a 6-3 double play from David Freese to limit the damage to only a pair of runs.

Baltimore got a run back in the third on Markakis' RBI double. After J.J. Hardy singled, Markakis followed by driving a ball into the right-center gap to close the deficit to 4-1.

The Cards added another run in the fifth. Schumaker led off with a double to deep center and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jay. After a two-out intentional walk to Berkman, Freese slapped an RBI single to center to push the lead out to 5-1.

The Orioles' best chance to inch closer came when they loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the frame, but Carpenter managed to escape with no damage. He got Markakis to ground into a fielder's choice, and induced fly- outs from Adam Jones and Vladimir Guerrero.

Game Notes

The Cardinals are 6-5 in interleague play this season...Orioles first baseman Derrek Lee went 0-for-3 and is one hit shy of 1,900 for his career...Markakis extended his hitting streak to 18 games...Jay extended his hitting streak to five games...St. Louis is 3-5 without Albert Pujols...Schumaker hit his eighth double of the year in the fifth inning.