Diamondbacks 4 - 1 Cardinals
Final
  for this game

Cards welcome Diamondbacks to Busch

Jul 7, 2011 - 3:08 PM

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(Sports Network) - The St. Louis Cardinals will kick off a four-game series tonight versus the Arizona Diamondbacks at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals recently took two of three meetings with Cincinnati and failed to record a sweep with Wednesday's 9-8 setback in 13 innings. Ramon Hernandez put the Reds ahead to stay with an RBI ground-rule double in the top of the 13th inning and sent Cardinals reliever Raul Valdes to the loss column.

Jake Westbrook luckily avoided a loss and allowed seven runs and eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. Albert Pujols returned to the lineup, while Jon Jay and Matt Holliday both homered for the Cardinals, who lead the National League Central Division by one game ahead of Milwaukee. Daniel Descalso collected four hits, two RBI and two runs scored in the win.

Pujols, a three-time NL MVP, was back in action just one night after being activated from the 15-day disabled list. He had been sidelined with a broken left wrist, but returned well ahead of schedule, going 1-for-6 with an RBI single last night.

"I saw him hit four balls on the nose," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of Pujols. "He was on everything. I thought he was outstanding. He's probably a little tired."

Kyle McClellan will toe the rubber for La Russa's club and is 6-5 with a 4.27 ERA in 15 games (14 starts). He is 0-4 with a 7.00 ERA in his last five starts -- all St. Louis losses -- and last pitched in Saturday's 5-1 setback at Tampa Bay. He allowed five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 frames.

McClellan defeated the Diamondbacks in the desert back on April 11 and yielded just one run over six innings of his team's 8-2 triumph. The righty is 1-2 with a 7.20 ERA in 10 career games (1 start) against Arizona.

The D'Backs will resume their 10-game road trip this evening and just took two of three matchups in Milwaukee. In Wednesday's 3-1 loss at Miller Park, Kelly Johnson accounted for the lone Diamondbacks run with a leadoff home run in the first inning. Miguel Montero added a double for Arizona, which was unable to complete the sweep after taking the first two games of the series.

Arizona starter Josh Collmenter threw six shutout innings in the no-decision and Joe Paterson was saddled with the loss for allowing two runs in just one- third of an inning.

"[Collmenter] threw good," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. "[He] gave us six strong innings -- no runs, threw the ball good, kept them off balance -- and that's certainly what we're looking for. Just a very tight game. Not a lot of opportunities."

The Diamondbacks, who are 3-3 on the trek, will send Joe Saunders to the mound Thursday. Saunders is 5-7 with a 4.04 ERA in 17 starts and has won five of his previous seven decisions. The lefty allowed two runs in seven innings in Saturday's 4-2 victory at Oakland.

Saunders has never faced St. Louis and is 3-4 in nine road starts this season.

St. Louis won two of three matchups with Arizona from April 11-13 this season and is 6-4 in the past 10 contests in this series.






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