Joel Pineiro helped by pitching the Cardinals to a 5-3 win over the Astros at BuschStadium on Friday night. Ryan Ludwick hit a double and his second homer on the season, provide Pineiro and the Cardinals bullpen with run support.
Ludwick is 6-for-15 with two home runs, a double and a walk over thefirst five games. On Friday, he walked to keep a first-inning rallyalive, had an RBI double in the third and hit a homer in the seventh while the Astros kept battling. His homer came after Houston added runs in back to back innings.
Inthe ninth, Ivan Rodriguez and Jeff Keppinger both singled against closer Jason Motte, and La Russa pulled him. La Russa called on Kyle McClellan for the last two outs.
I wonder how much longer Motte will be around before Chris Perez gets the call up from Memphis?
