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Pujols, Duncan help Cardinals rout Giants

Apr 19, 2008 - 4:53 AM By Jim Walsh PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals are both red-hot.

Pujols drove in four runs, including a monster three-run homer in the fourth inning, and Chris Duncan added a two-run shot as the Cardinals won their National League-leading 12th game of the season by defeating San Francisco Giants, 11-1, on Friday.

St. Louis (12-5) won for the eighth time in 10 home games and had nine different players with hits. Pujols, who extended his hitting streak to 10 games, supplied two of the Cardinals' 13 hits.

"(Pujols) is amazing," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "That's part of his amazingness is you see how locked in he is every game he plays."

Cardinals starter Todd Wellemeyer (2-0) was excellent over seven innings, producing one of the best starts of his career. The righthander, who had surrendered five runs over six innings against the Giants last Saturday, allowed only one run and four hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

"Wellemeyer actually had a better breaking ball than he's had in a long time," La Russa said. "The last time he pitched well, it's just that the one inning they got him."

"Staying focused is the big thing," Wellemeyer said. "Don't think too far ahead, every inning is a new inning. I felt pretty good tonight."

St. Louis built a 3-1 lead against San Francisco starter Matt Cain (0-2) on an RBI groundout by Pujols in the first inning and Duncan's two-run homer in the third.

The Cardinals opened the floodgates in the fourth, scoring six runs with two outs and sending 12 batters to the plate.

After Skip Schumaker drove in a pair with a line single to left-center, Duncan drew a walk to bring Pujols to the plate. The slugger pounded a 2-2 fastball over the left field wall and into "Big Mac Land."

"I was trying to go inside to Pujols on that pitch," Cain said. "I overthrew it and left it up."

"I was able to spoil a good pitch," said Pujols who has reached base in all 17 games this year. "It was a pretty good pitch and I just tried to keep my hands inside."

After two more batters reached base, Adam Kennedy capped the scoring with an RBI double.

Cain had fared much better in his last start last Saturday against the Cardinals. The 23-year-old took a no-hitter into the seventh inning, allowing two runs and striking out five over 6 2/3 frames.

St. Louis was ready to swing the bats against Cain this time around, clobbering the righthander for nine runs and eight hits with three walks over 3 2/3 innings.

"We talked about (Cain) at our meeting," Pujols said. "That's what we took out there. He pitched probably the same way and we just were more aggressive with him and we scored early."

It was the most earned runs allowed by Cain in 74 career starts.

"It's just one start," Cain said. "You can't let that kill you for the rest of the year. I just wasn't able to put balls where I wanted to, and it cost me a ton."

"(Cain) just had trouble getting the ball where he wanted tonight," Giants manager Bruce Bochy added. "He made some good pitches, he just made too many mistakes."

San Francisco's lone run came in the third on an RBI single by Freddy Lewis. The Giants have managed only four runs over their current three-game skid.