The Cardinals handed Red Sox starter Matt Clement his first loss of the season on Tuesday. St. Louis topped Boston 9-2 at Busch Stadium. Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Abraham Nunez drove in two runs apiece to give Jeff Suppan his fifth win.
Edmonds’ two run homer in the first, his 11th of the season, gave St. Louis 2-0 lead. Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek cut that advantage in half with his 11th home run of the season in the top of the second inning, but the Cardinals soon found themselves with plenty of breathing room.
In the bottom of the second inning St. Louis went on a four-run rally that was sparked by David Eckstein who got it going with an RBI single to score Yadier Molina. Mark Grudzielanek followed up with an RBI single to score Suppan. Albert Pujols came to the plate next and gave the Cardinals a 6-1 lead with a two-run double. His 45 RBI’s is fourth-best in the National League.
Reggie Sanders went deep of the 12th time of the season with a solo home run in the third inning and Abraham Nunez singled in Grudzielanek and Sanders in the seventh to round out the scoring .
Suppan lasted six innings and was charged with two runs off six hits, a walk and a strikeout to improve to 5-5 on the season.
Al Reyes, Ray King, Gave White and Julian Tavarez pitched the final three innings, but they were anything but smooth at times. Reyes was ejected in the eighth inning after a series of hit batters. It all started in the sixth inning when Boston reliever John Halama hit Cardinals outfielder Larry Walker. In the seventh, Reyes hit Varitek and in the bottom of the inning, Walker was plunked again by Matt Mantei. Reyes hit Kevin Youkilis, the first batter of the inning of the eighth and was thrown out.
Things got even more interesting in the ninth, when White allowed three hits to load the bases. Tavarez entered the game to get the final out of the game.
