The Cardinals’ final regular season game at Busch Stadium ended with a 7-5 win over the Red, but it didn’t come easy. St. Louis starter Matt Morris was chased after the third inning and put the Cards in a 5-1 hole.
Morris allowed two runs in the first inning. Then in the third he allowed three straight solo home runs to Felipe Lopez, Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns. That gave the Reds their four-run lead.
But St. Louis wasn’t going to be out-done in the regular season-finale at Busch. Yadier Molina, Abraham Nunez and So Taguchi drove in runs in the fourth inning to cut the lead to 5-4. In the fifth, it was the Cardinals’ turn to change the game with the long ball, as Reggie Sanders belted a solo homer to tie it and Chris Duncan, son of pitching coach Dave Duncan, sent his first homer over the fence to give the Cardinals the lead.
David Eckstein drove in a run in the bottom of the seventh to give the Cards a two-run lead.
Tony LaRussa used nine pitchers and a total of 22 players on Sunday. Brad Thompson got the win in relief, improving to 4-0 on the season. Jason Isringhausen got his 39th save. The win marked the Cardinals second-straight 100-win season.