CHICAGO (AP) -- If Albert Pujols swings the bat during the final
month the way he has the last nine games, the St. Louis Cardinals
have to feel good about winning the NL Central.
"It's good to have guys in front of me and behind me that if I
take my whacks, somebody can drive me in,'' Pujols said Saturday
when he homered for the second straight day as the Cards beat the
Chicago Cubs 8-1 in the first game of a doubleheader.
Pujols finished 3-for-4 -- he's now 16-for-35 (.457) in his last
nine games -- and Eli Marrero and Eduardo Perez also homered for St.
Louis.
"I've been seeing the ball pretty well and I'm trying to make
things happen,'' Pujols said. "Today I could have the big hit and
tomorrow it could be Scott Rolen or Jim Edmonds or Tino Martinez.
The team approach is what we've been using the last two months.''
The Cardinals have been pulling together during a very emotional
season.
Saturday's doubleheader was created when the scheduled June 22
game was posptoned by the death of Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile.
Kile was found dead in his Chicago hotel room 10 weeks ago
Saturday.
"We're not trying harder because it's the end of the season,''
manager Tony La Russa said. "We got in this position because we've
been going 100 percent like this all year.''
Pujols hit his 32nd homer, a solo shot that extended the Cards'
led to 2-0 in the fifth. He also doubled in the first and singled
in the third when the Cards scored on Rolen's RBI single, a shallow
fly down the right field line that sliding Cubs second baseman Mark
Bellhorn couldn't hold.
Marrero hit his 11th homer, off reliever Francis Beltran in the
eighth, to make it 5-1 and Perez hit his third pinch homer, a
three-run shot in the ninth.
Luther Hackman (4-4), in just his sixth start this season, gave
up just four hits in five innings. Ex-Cub Jeff Fassero, traded to
St. Louis last Sunday, surrendered Bellhorn's 24th home run in the
seventh.
Cubs starter Mark Prior (6-6) left the game because of a
strained left hamstring, departing before delivering a pitch to
start the top of the sixth.
In the bottom of the fifth, Prior ran to first after a
third-strike wild pitch by Hackman and then slid hard into second
base on a fielder's choice.
"When I was running to second on the ground ball, it started to
grab me. I thought it was cramp, but when I went back out for a
warmup and landed, it couldn't bear my weight,'' Prior said. "You
don't want to be stupid about it. If it was Game 7 of the World
Series, maybe I would try to gut it out.''
Joe Borowski relieved and was greeted by Tino Martinez's double
and a sacrifice bunt by Marrero, who reached on third baseman Chris
Stynes' error.
Mike DiFelice then hit a sacrifice to left and Martinez beat
Moises Alou's throw to the plate, prompting an argument from
catcher Joe Girardi and interim manager Bruce Kimm, who claimed
Martinez left too soon. Fernando Vina followed one out later with
an RBI double to make it 4-0.
Prior gave up seven hits and two runs.
Game notes
La Russa tied Gene Mauch (1,902) for ninth place on the
all-time managerial victory list. ... Sammy Sosa missed his seventh
straight game and is not expected back before Monday because of a
sore back and neck. When he sits out the second game, Sosa will
have missed 11 games this season, the same number he missed in the
previous five years combined. ... Cards closer Jason Isringhausen
was unavailable because of a strained right shoulder. Isringhausen
was warming up to pitch the ninth inning Friday when he felt
something in his shoulder and was unable to pitch. He's day to day.
... To make room for second-game starter Jason Bere, who came off
the disabled list, the Cubs optioned Friday's losing pitcher,
Carlos Zambrano, to Triple-A Iowa.