• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Red-hot Pujols, Cardinals face lowly Giants

Apr 19, 2008 - 11:52 AM San Francisco (6-11) at St Louis (12-5) 1:10 pm EDT

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) - Albert Pujols will look to continue his torrid hitting Saturday as the St. Louis Cardinals host the San Francisco Giants in the second of a three-game series.

Pujols drove in four runs, including a monster three-run homer in the fourth inning, to lead the Cardinals to an 11-1 drubbing of the San Francisco Giants on Friday.

St. Louis won for the eighth time in 10 home games this season and Pujols extended his hitting streak to 10 games. The slugger, who leads the club with four home runs and 14 RBI on the campaign, has also reached base in every game this season.

"(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."

The Giants will hope young righthander Tim Lincecum (2-0, 2.25 ERA) can contain Pujols and the rest of the Cardinals' offense.

The 23-year-old Lincecum did just that in his last outing, yielding just two runs and six hits with 11 strikeouts over six frames in a 7-4 victory over St. Louis on Sunday.

The Cardinals will once again counter with Joel Pineiro (0-1, 14.73), who was on the losing end of Sunday's encounter. In his first outing of the season, Pineiro relinquished six runs and 10 hits over 3 2/3 innings.