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Pujols aims to continue torrid power streak

Aug 23, 2007 - 3:22 PM Florida (56-71) at St. Louis (61-62) 8:10 pm EDT

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Albert Pujols will see if he can keep the home runs coming when St. Louis Cardinals go for a three-game sweep over the floundering Florida Marlins on Thursday.

Pujols extended his homer streak to a career-high five games with a two-run shot in the first inning of a 6-4 victory on Wednesday. It was the 10th win in the last 12 games for the Cardinals.

Connecting on six home runs in his last seven games, Pujols is three games shy of the major league record for consecutive games with a homer, last accomplished by Ken Griffey Jr. as a Seattle Mariner in 1993. Just as impressively, he became the only player in major league history to hit 30 or more homers in each of his first seven seasons.

In part due to Pujols' power resurgence, as his 14 home runs since the All-Star break are the most in the National League, St. Louis is in position to reach .500 for the first time since it was 6-6 on April 16.

Anthony Reyes (2-12, 5.61 ERA), who will be facing the Marlins for the first time in his career, would like to benefit from his teammate's surge. He took the loss in Saturday's 5-3 setback against the Chicago Cubs in which he surrendered five runs and four hits over six frames.

Although the righthander continues to pile up the losses - he was 0-10 with a 6.40 ERA at the All-Star break - Reyes is 2-2 with a 3.90 ERA since.

Opposing him will be Florida rookie Rick VandenHurk (3-4, 7.36), who took the loss in Saturday's 4-3 loss to San Francisco. He permitted four runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings, including Barry Bonds' 760th career home run.

The righthander did grab the win in his only lifetime meeting vs. St. Louis, however, allowing five hits and striking out six over five innings in a 4-0 win by the Marlins.