St. Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina yells to his bench after hitting a two run home run in the sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on June 19, 2013   UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Yadier Molina yells to his bench after hitting a two run home run in the sixth inning against the Chicago Cubs. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Yadier Molina keeps delivering the big hits. Molina hit his fifth home run off former teammate Edwin Jackson to back Jake Westbrook in the Cardinals’ 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night. Molina said the blast was somewhat of a surprise.

AUDIO Molina on his home run

I said it yesterday during my Missourinet Mornings video, Molina has to be the front runner for the N.L. MVP. Molina is hitting .365–Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki, who is on the DL, is second at .347. Molina is just outside of the top 10 in RBIs with 41 and he has the best catcher’s ERA and the staff has MLB’s second-best ERA (3.28). Those are reasons good enough for Westbrook to label Molina as an MVP.

AUDIO Westbrook on why Molina is MVP

Westbrook (3-2) wasn’t particularly sharp in his second start since his return from the DL, but he only gave up an unearned run on two hits while striking out two and walking three. Edward Mujica pitched a perfect ninth inning for his 21st save in 21 attempts.