The St. Louis Cardinals belted five home runs en route to an 8-6 10 inning victory over the Houston Astros Sunday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.
The Cards jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the 1 st inning on David Eckstein’s second homer of the season. They extended their lead to 3-0 in the 5 th , with one of those runs coming on Juan Encarnacion’s second home run of the year.
After the Cards scored one more run in the 6 th , the Astros bounced back with one in the bottom of the 6 th and three in the 7 th , to toe the game at 4-4.
Albert Pujols hit the first of his two roundtrippers in the 8 th to put the Redbirds on top temporarily, but Houston tied it up in the bottom of the inning.
In the 10 th inning, the Cards scored three runs on Pujols’ second homer of the game and So Taguchi’s second home run of the season. Houston added a run in the bottom of the 10 th , but the Astros could do no more.
Jason Isringhausen (2-0) pitched two innings to earn the win. Dan Wheeler (0-2) took the loss.
The Cardinals (24-30) have Monday off. They return home to open a three game series against Cincinnati on Tuesday. Todd Wellemeyer (1-1) pitched for the Cards against the Reds’ Aaron Harang (6-2).