With a dark cloud of late looming over slugger Matt Holliday and lead off man Skip Schumaker, they both see the sun as the Cardinals start the weekend with a 6-4 win over the Oakland Athletics. The win puts the Cards back on top in the NL Central.
Holliday would waste little time as he would smash his seventh home run of the season in the bottom of the first. This would be a two run shot that would give the Cardinals and starter Chris Carpenter an early lead.
After a four run second from the A’s, the Redbirds would get back on the board, again thanks to Holliday in the fifth. He would hit an RBI single that would score Brendan Ryan. Albert Pujols would add another RBI single that would score Schumaker to put St. Louis ahead to stay.
Schumaker, who went 3-4, would get an RB double in the seventh. He would score for the third time in the seventh thanks to an RBI hit from Ryan Ludwick.
Carpenter did not start the game well, but finished on fire to pick up his eighth win of the season. After the awful fourth, he would surrender no more runs. He did give up 10 hits over his seven innings of work while striking out five.
Game two of the series will be this evening at Busch as Adam Wainwright goes for his 10th win of the season. The Athletics will counter with Ben Sheets.
Game time is 6:15.