Chris Carpenter struck out ten and Albert Pujols hit his 38th home run as the Cardinals beat the Reds 5-2. St. Louis has now opened up a four game lead in the NL Central as they begin to pull away from Chicago and the rest of the division.
Before Pujols’ big knock in the third, he ripped a shot at Cincy starter Homer Bailey who tried to throw Pujols out at first base, but threw the ball away. Pujols went to third and Skip Schumaker and Brendan Ryan who singled to start the game scored. Bailey left with an injury. He is the second Reds’ starter to get hurt in this series. Johnny Cueto also left this series early with a hip injury. Those two along with Edison Volquez and Micah Owings will all most likely end up on the DL.Pujols came in on a double by Matt Holliday who quickly pounced on reliever Carlos Fisher.
Enough on the Reds’ pitching. How about Chris Carpenter? I’m jumping on the Cy Young bandwagon. Heck, I might be one of the first to say he deserves the award. He picked up his 12 th win of the year in 19 starts and his ERA is 2.27 which is second only to Tim Lincecum of San Francisco.
Carpenter lost it a bit in the sixth. Up 5-0 at the point, he gave up four straight singles which led to both of Cincinnati’s runs. Half of the hits he allowed came in that inning.
Carpenter, Pujols, and Tony LaRussa talk about Carpenter’s performance