The St. Louis Cardinals' offensive rally continued on the road Thursday night, and Albert Pujols finally got in on the action, hitting his second home run of the season as the Cardinals topped the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 9-5. Matt Holliday hit two doubles and Colby Rasmus tripled in the win, while those three combined with Lance Berkman to hit .421 and slug .789.
Pujols's home run was a 364-foot shot, hit to conclude a nine pitch at-bat that began with Pujols down 0-2 and saw him take three consecutive balls then foul off three more before he pulled a Kuroda fastball into the Dodger Stadium seats.
Jaime Garcia picked up his second win in an uneven outing, allowing two earned runs in five innings while throwing 91 pitches. Hiroki Kuroda took his first loss of the season; he allowed 10 hits and five earned runs in his five innings of work.
Notes: Daniel Descalso got the start at third base in place of David Freese, who would later hit a pinch single. He was 1-3 with an RBI. Matt Kemp homered in the ninth inning off Ryan Franklin, who continues to struggle after blowing three saves in his first four appearances; with the solo home run his ERA fell to 9.64 on the season. Mitchell Boggs, the top homegrown-closer candidate before Eduardo Sanchez's electric debut, fired back with his own two innings Thursday, striking out three in two no-hit innings.