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Mather, Ludwick help Cards cool down Phillies

Aug 2, 2008 - 4:19 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Joe Mather belted a three-run home run and Ryan Ludwick added a pair of solo blasts as the St. Louis Cardinals recorded a 6-3 triumph over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.

Kyle Lohse (13-3) pitched 5 1/3 innings against his former team as the Cardinals snapped the Phillies' five-game winning streak.

Russ Springer, Jaime Garcia and Jason Isringhausen combined for 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to preserve the lead. Returning to the closer's role, Isringhausen pitched 1 1/3 innings for his first save since May 5.

"I think it was important for Izzy," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "And what's important for Izzy is important for us. Take the quality of the opponent and the importance of the game, and at home where the fans are waiting to see how it goes before they give him their tender loving care. I thought it was huge."

St. Louis jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third inning off one swing of the bat from Mather. Philadelphia starter Cole Hamels allowed a leadoff single to Skip Schumaker and a walk to Cesar Izturis before Mather hit his fifth home run of the year into the left field seats to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead.

"I knew that he probably didn't want to walk me and load the bases with Albert (Pujols) behind me," Mather said. "I wasn't sitting dead on it but he threw it and it got enough of the plate and I got a hold of it."

"I definitely missed my spot," Hamels said. "I was trying to throw down and in. And it went right over the heart of the

plate, high I guess. It definitely was not the day for myself to really locate. It's tough just because you want to be able to go out there and help the team out especially with the winning streak we've had. And on top of the last start I had was very poor and so ... I want to redeem myself. And I wasn't able to do that at all."

Hamels (9-7) retired Albert Pujols on a groundout to third following Mather's homer, but Ludwick and Troy Glaus hit back-to-back singles before Yadier Molina made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly to left field.

Ludwick belted his first of two home runs in the fifth inning before the Phillies chased Lohse in the sixth.

"It's a big win," Ludwick said. "That's a first-place team over there and it's important to get game one. It was a total team effort. Everybody did a good job today, pitching, hitting, defense. Just a good all-around victory. I was fortunate, I got a couple of good pitches tonight and I put the barrel on them."

Lohse, who improved to 2-0 against Philadelphia this season, surrendered back-to-back doubles to Shane Victorino and Chase Utley to lead off the sixth and put the Phillies on the board. After getting Ryan Howard to strike out looking, Pat Burrell smacked a two-run homer to left field to cut the deficit to 5-3.

"I felt good early but maybe threw too many pitches and kind of wore myself out," Lohse said. "Things were going good but I was still working pretty hard early in those innings. It's a team game and the guys in the bullpen did their job."

Lohse's night ended after Geoff Jenkins followed with a double, but Springer retired the next two hitters to escape further damage.

Ludwick added an insurance run for the Cardinals with his 25th homer of the year, a solo shot off Ryan Madson.

St. Louis moved to within four games of the Chicago Cubs, who fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0, in the National League Central.