Albert Pujols hit his second homerun of the season and Matt Holliday drove in three runs as the Cardinals pounded out 16 more hits in a 9-5 win over the Dodgers in game one of this four game series.

The Cardinals followed up Wednesday night’s 17 hit attack against Arizona with another impressive offensive outing as they scored runs in four straight innings from the 2nd through the 5th. Jaime Garcia gave up a run in the first. He was shaky in his five innings allowing three runs with two of those earned on eight hits, but the offense picked him up.

Before the Cardinals left for this long road trip last week, Tony LaRussa snapped at persistant questions from the media about what was wrong with the team’s offense, with Tony shouting back, “Guys, it’s the first week!”

The team has managed 14 or more hits in the last four games. The last time a Cardinals team did that was 1979.