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Pujols powers Cardinals past Marlins

Aug 23, 2007 - 4:57 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Albert Pujols' home run hitting may be contagious.

Pujols homered for a personal-best fifth straight game and Yadier Molina and Jim Edmonds also went deep as the surging St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Florida Marlins, 6-4, on Wednesday.

St. Louis has won three straight and eight of 10 to move to one game under .500 for the first time since April 26.

"We've shown a lot of patience and resilience," Edmonds said. "A lot of heart, we haven't played well all year and we just keep battling. Guys are keeping their heads up. We just keep playing baseball, we know it's going to be a close race - so we just playing and see what happens."

Pujols, who has homered in four-straight games seven times in his career, put the Cardinals on top in the first, sending his 30th blast over the wall in left-center for a 2-0 lead.

It was the 14th home run since the All-Star break for the St. Louis slugger, best among all major league players.

"I'm just putting on better swings right now," said Pujols, who became the first player in Major League history with 30 or more home runs in each of his first seven seasons. "I'm using the whole field and making a couple of little adjustments at the plate. You need to figure out what the pitchers and the teams are going to try to do to you and adjust to those things."

Molina's solo home run in fifth put the Cardinals ahead, 3-1.

St. Louis starter Braden Looper kept Florida off balance for the first six innings, with a solo home run by Miguel Olivo in the second as his only run allowed.

The converted reliever, who saved 28 games for the 2003 world champion team, allowed only three hits before Josh Willingham led off the seventh with a double to left.

Looper was lifted by St. Louis manager Tony La Russa in favor of Ryan Franklin, who promptly gave up an RBI single to Mike Jacobs. Two batters later, Jeremy Hermida lifted a ball over the right field wall for his 12th home run of the season to give the Marlins a 4-3 lead.

"I knew what I was thinking, making the move to Franklin, but it wasn't the best move," La Russa said. "I should have gone with (Tyler) Johnson. I played that wrong and paid the price. Fortunately, we came back."

"Looper went out there and threw a great game," Hermida said. "He kept us all off balance and pitched the ball well. We came back and got a couple runs right there to put us back on top. But they went out there and jumped right back on us, and that's the sign of a good team."

The Cardinals answered with three runs in the bottom of the seventh off Marlins starter Scott Olsen. Molina's run-scoring double was followed by Edmonds' blast to the right-center field bleachers and St. Louis was back on top 6-4.

"I was just looking for something to hit," said Edmonds, who homered for the first time since June 9. "I never faced (Olsen) before and I was just trying to be careful and not swing at balls. It's just one of those things, you get lucky every once in a while."

"We've got to get through the seventh," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "We had just put a big number up in the top of the seventh, we had an opportunity and we didn't get it done."

Russ Springer (6-1) was credited with win after pitching one flawless inning, while Jason Isringhausen picked up his 25th save.

Olsen (9-11) was charged with all six runs in his 6 1/3 innings. The lefthander allowed 10 hits, striking out one with no walks as the Marlins lost their eighth consecutive game, matching their longest skid since July 2002.

"They gave me four runs, I should have won," said Olsen, who dropped to 1-4 over his last six starts. "Bad location, bad pitch selection. This is the worst I've ever felt after a loss."