St. Louis Cardinals Ryan Theriot pumps his fist from second base after hitting a double in the seventh inning against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 30, 2011. Theriot had four hits and three RBIs as St. Louis defeated Chicago 13-5. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Former Cub Ryan Theriot broke a 2-for-38 slump with two hits on Friday, then continued to torture his former team wiht four hits and three RBIs on Saturday to help the Cardinals shake off a five-run deficit and turn it in a 13-5 win.
Theriot is 6 for 7 with six RBIs against his former team in two games and is hitting .571 against the Cubs. Albert Pujols and David Freese each homered for the Cardinals. It was the 432nd homer of Pujols’ career and came one day after he reached 2,000 hits. The home run puts him in 40th place on the career list.
The big blows came in the fifth for the Cardinals who have won six in a row over the North Siders. The Cards sent 12 men to the plate in the fifth and scored eight runs on four hits to take a 10-5 and chase starter Rodrigo Lopez.
Reliever Jeff Samardzija entered after Lopez walked Pujols intentional and then walked Matt Holliday to score Theriot. Freese hit a grounder to second baseman Darwin Barney, who threw to shortstop Starlin Castro to start a double play, but Holliday took out Castro as Jon Jay scored and then Pujols darted home while Castro lay on the ground hurt. Cubs manager Mike Quade came out to argue that Holliday never got close enough to the base and was ejected by second base umpire Derryl Cousins.