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Pujols blast drives Cardinals past Reds

Sep 19, 2008 - 3:00 AM By Douglas Tifft PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Kyle Lohse provided a strong pitching performance and Albert Pujols delivered the power as the St. Louis Cardinals snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday.

Lohse (14-6) allowed three runs and six hits while striking out five in 6 2/3 innings to tie his career high with 14 wins.

"I thought Lohse rose to the occasion because we are on a losing streak and he had to make a lot of tough pitches," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Lohse was plagued by a series of bloop singles and a costly fielding error in the second inning that led to a run.

"They found some holes on what I felt like were some pretty good pitches," Lohse said. "It is just part of pitching, you have to work around some of that stuff and minimize their scoring opportunities."

The game represented a rematch of the the August 17 matchup between Lohse and Edinson Volquez, in which the Cardinals' righthander was ejected after throwing two balls behind Volquez's head. Lohse has since served a five-game suspension for the incident, with Thursday's game marking his first start back.

While Volquez (16-6) did not have to deal with any beanballs, he had enough trouble simply finding the strike zone, walking six batters for the second straight start and third time this season.

"It was all over the place [tonight]," Volquez said of his command.

Volquez was able to strand the runners early , but his wildness caught up with him in the third inning. The righthander walked two batters before leaving a fastball over the center of the plate to National League MVP candidate Albert Pujols, who drove it 404 feet to center field for his 34th home run of the season to make it 3-1.

Volquez was able to limit his damage after that to an RBI single to Felipe Lopez in the fifth, as he was charged with four runs and three hits in six innings to go with the six walks and five strikeouts.

Lohse was relieved with the bases loaded in the seventh by Russ Springer, who got Jeff Keppinger to pop out to end the threat.

Ryan Franklin followed with a scoreless eighth and Jason Motte retired the final batter of the game for his first career save after Chris Perez allowed one run on a Jerry Hairston Jr. bloop single in two-thirds of an inning.

"Just hitting them where they ain't. He threw me a slider and I just put the bat on the ball and found some land," Hairston said of his hit.