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Wainwright does it all in win over Brewers

Apr 17, 2008 - 4:38 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Cardinals are certainly taking advantage of an early run of games at Busch Stadium.

Adam Wainwright homered and tossed seven-plus strong innings, powering the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-4 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday.

Wainwright went 7 2/3 innings, yielding two runs - one earned - and five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

"We won the game against a division rival, so I'm pretty excited," Wainwright said. "I was able to throw strikes and get some early outs.

"And I take pride in my hitting because I believe it can really swing the result of the game - if a pitcher is out there swinging the bat, keeping his team in the game, putting a quality at-bat on the pitcher and getting base hits. There's always a better chance of scoring runs. It's something I take seriously."

Since dropping its home opener, St. Louis has since reeled off seven consecutive victories at Busch, the team's best home stretch since winning seven in a row from May 11-28, 2005.

After Albert Pujols lined a two-run double into left field in the first inning to open the scoring, Wainwright (2-1) led off the second with a first-pitch home run to left off Brewers starter Carlos Villanueva (1-2).

"As the offense, you want to get it going early right away," Pujols said. "It obviously takes a little pressure off our pitching. And it's always a plus when our pitching can help themselves out like that with the bat. It's pretty impressive."

"So far this month, we have done a good job of taking good at-bats," Cardinals outfielder Skip Schumaker said. "Scoring first is a big deal. It's no secret, I think every team tries to get out to an early lead."

Milwaukee trimmed the lead to 3-1 in the fourth with an RBI single from Bill Hall to score Ryan Braun.

The Cardinals added two insurance runs in the fifth when Schumaker led off the frame with a solo shot, taking a 1-2 slider from Villanueva over the fence in right for his first homer of the season.

"Today was just one of those days," Villanueva said. "I battled all I could. You can't just let your guard down. You have to find ways to get it done."

When asked if he knew he had hit his fourth career home run in 303 at-bats, Schumaker didn't hesitate.

"I don't hit them enough to think balls are gone," he said.

Singles from Chris Duncan and Troy Glaus sandwiched a pair of flyouts from Pujols and Rick Ankiel, setting the stage for Yadier Molina to plate Duncan with a single to put the Cardinals ahead, 5-1, after five.

Prince Fielder added a seemingly harmless run-scoring groundout in the sixth to cut the lead to 5-2. Ray Flores recorded the final out of the eighth before handing it over to closer Jason Isringhausen to start the ninth.

After retiring Hall, Corey Hart legged out a bunt single to give the Brewers hope. J.J. Hardy plated Hart with an RBI double to right and pinch hitter Craig Counsell followed with a run-scoring ground-rule double to cut the lead to 5-4.

However, Pujols turned in an incredible defensive play in the next at-bat, robbing Jason Kendall of the potential game-tying single when he reached high to his right to corral a hard-hit line drive. Isringhausen settled down to nail down his sixth save in seven chances when he retired Rickie Weeks on a weak groundout.