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[h2]Three jacks a winner for Cards[/h2] [h3]Duncan, Pujols, Molina go deep in pounding of Pirates
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By Matthew Leach / MLB.com
04/08/09 1:27 AM ET
Box >ST. LOUIS -- Consider it a do-over.
The Cardinals did nearly everything right in the second game of their 2009 season, riding a barrage of extra-base hits and a quality starting pitching performance to a 9-3 win over the Pirates at Busch Stadium on Tuesday. St. Louis avoided what would have been its second 0-2 start in three years and erased some of the ugly memories of a frustrating Opening Day loss.
One day after a bullpen blowup ruined the good feelings of the season opener, the Cards built a advantage healthy enough that there was no drama in the late innings -- or even the middle innings. The Cardinals scored in each of the first five frames to build a lead that proved insurmountable for the visiting Buccos.
Albert Pujols, clearly free of a mini-slump that slowed him late in Spring Training, reached base four times and drilled a two-run home run. Chris Duncan went deep for the first time in over nine months. Yadier Molina tripled -- yes, tripled -- and homered. And Joe Thurston, making his first start as a Cardinal, drove in two runs with a single and a double.
It was a complete offensive performance, with six different Cardinals tallying at least two runs or two RBIs.
"Everybody played the game the right way," said Pujols.
This is exactly the kind of lineup depth the Cardinals hope to showcase on a regular basis in 2009. There's no doubt it all starts with Pujols, the two-time National League Most Valuable Player, but if it ends with him as well, that won't be enough. On Tuesday, everybody got in on the fun.
In the bottom of the first, down a run, the first two St. Louis hitters were retired. Pittsburgh starter Ian Snell, whom Pujols has abused over the years, walked the slugger without much of an attempt to do anything else. But Duncan made that decision look very bad when he smoked a two-run shot 348 feet off of the right-field foul pole.
It was Duncan's first home run since July 2, 2008. In the intervening time, he underwent a highly unusual surgery to insert a titanium disk in his back. Duncan's power had been sapped by the back injury that necessitated the surgery, as well as a sports hernia, but he has looked like his old self in Spring Training and early in the season.
"Chris had a good spring, and I think he's carrying that into the season," Pujols said. "You can call Chris a veteran guy now, because he knows that he belongs here, and he knows that he's capable to hit in this league. I think as long as he doesn't try to do too much and lets the game come to him, I think he's going to be fine. I'm glad to see him swinging the bat great."
An inning later, Molina huffed and puffed his way to the second triple of his career, then scored on Thurston's double as the Cards took a 3-1 lead. St. Louis broke it open in the third, with Pujols again at the center of things, but not acting on his own. Colby Rasmus led off with a single, his first big league hit, and Pujols followed with a 419-foot homer over the visitors' bullpen and into the bleachers in left field.
After Snell got two outs, giving himself a chance to end the inning, Rick Ankiel singled, Molina walked and Thurston singled home the sixth run. Snell lasted another inning before being chased with a line of eight runs (six earned) over four frames.
"We faced him a lot last year and the year before, so we've got a pretty good idea of what he's throwing," Molina said. "We've got a pretty good plan against him, and we executed it pretty good."
The cushion made life easier for Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse, who breezed through the second, third, fourth and fifth with only an infield hit as a blemish. A Skip Schumaker error preceded Freddy Sanchez's two-run homer, but that only made a blowout a little bit closer. Lohse battled through that inning and the seventh before handing the ball over to his bullpen.
"I felt like I was a little too juiced early, and the ball was getting up on me," Lohse said. "But after that, I felt like I settled in and tried to ground out the last couple innings. I didn't have my best stuff at the end, but I made it work."
Matthew Leachis a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Great game, we should be sweeping these guys
