Matt Holliday, acting as designated hitter in the Cardinals' first scheduled interleague slate, hit a long home run into the Kaufman Stadium fountains to put the St. Louis Cardinals up by a score of 2-0 after seven innings of tie baseball, and it was all Jake Westbrook would need Saturday afternoon as the Cardinals beat the Kansas City Royals 3-0. Albert Pujols went 1-3 and Allen Craig had two hits in support of Westbrook, who threw eight scoreless innings before handing the ball to Fernando Salas, who recorded his sixth save of the 2011 season. The Cardinals improve to 27-20 with the win, while the Royals fall under .500 with a 22-23 record.
Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer had hits for the Royals, who made 11 groundouts against Westbrook's famously heavy sinker. Nathan Adcock, a rookie making his first career start, went five scoreless innings with four strikeouts and just one walk to pick up the no-decision, while diminutive flamethrower Tim Collins picked up the loss, his second of the year.
The Cardinals and the Royals close out their series Sunday afternoon, when Jaime Garcia is set to take on Sean O'Sullivan. Garcia is 5-0 with an ERA of just 1.64 in the first month-and-a-half of his sophomore season.