The St. Louis Cardinals skimmed over the San Francisco Giants 4-3 Sunday, ending their first half with a victory. The win moves the Cards to a 56-32 record. St. Louis’ Scott Rolen successfully battled with his wounded left shoulder and gave Cards starter Jeff Suppan strong defensive support on a couple of marked plays.Rolen’s right-handed snatch in the second inning, stealing a hit from Pedro Feliz, would have any lacking baseball fan wishing for Tivo.Pujols also proved replay worthy. The Redbird started a 3-6-3 double play when he swatted down Omar Vizquel’s hit in the third inning.San Francisco’s right fielder Alex Sanchez also lent a hand, or didn’t rather, to help out the Redbirds. Reggie Sanders popped a high fly ball toward Sanchez. The Giants right fielder slipped back then ran forward before the ball skipped off his glove. Sanders skipped on to third, earning an official triple on a ball that didn’t reach 120 feet beyond home.Three batters after Sanders, Sanchez erred again. Grudzielanek rounded first and ran on to second when Sanchez overran the Card’s hit. Then Suppan singled on a hit up the middle bringing Walker and Grudzialanek home to up the score 4-1.Suppan sprinkled his 6 and 1/3 innings with nine hits, with all three of San Francisco’s hits in the bunch.Relief pitcher Jason Isringhausen flirted with trouble in the ninth with bases loaded, but snuck a third strike past Lance Niekro who simply watched the pitch buzz by his bat.
