How Albert Pujols goes, so goes the Cardinals. Pujols homered, doubled and scored the winning run as the Cardinals comeback to beat the Braves, 8-3, at Turner Field on Tuesday night.
The Cardinals have bounced back from that five game losing streak by winning three of the last four and pulled to one game of Milwaukee for the Wild Card.
Pujols hit his 21 st home run to tie the game in the sixth inning and then in the 8 th , doubled. Pujols stole third and then scored on a wild throw home by Brave’s catcher Corky Miller to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead.
In the 9 th , the Cardinals piled on five runs, four of which were unearned. Todd Wellemeyer got a no-decision but it kept the game close after giving up two runs in the second inning. Ryan Franklin earned his fourth win by pitching two scoreless innings. Kyle McClellan pitched the 9 th and gave up a run.
Back to Pujols, in the past four games, he is 10-for-18 with three home runs, two doubles, eight RBIs and nine runs scored. Before this latest outburtst, he had gone 17 games without a home run, but has quickly silenced reporters asking about his brief power outage.
