Albert Pujols homered again in the first inning and Adam Wainwright tossed eight innings to pick up the win as the Cardinals beat Florida 3-1 and move to within five games of the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card.
Pujols’ homer gave the Cardinals a quick 2-0 lead and Wainwright limited the Marlins to one run on six hits over eight innings, striking out six and walking one. Once again in the ninth, Tony LaRussa went to Randy Flores for one hitter, then much like calling on Ryan Franklin for yesterday’s save, he went to Chris Perez who go the final two outs for his 7 th save of the year.
The Cardinals have an off day before taking on the Cubs in a three game series, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. St. Louis has 19 games left to play.
