Kyle Lohse took the St. Louis Cardinals into the seventh inning with a 6-0 lead over the Houston Astros, but it took four relievers and an inordinately suspenseful ninth inning for the Redbirds to drop the Astros 6-5, after continued struggling from Ryan Franklin started the bullpen dominos again. The end result was that Eduardo Sanchez picked up his first career save, allowing three hits and two earned runs while striking out two. Lohse was the winner, after all the dust settled, improving to 4-1 with an ERA of just 1.64. J.A. Happ took the loss, falling to 1-4 on the year.
Matt Holliday and Tyler Greene homered, and Nick Punto, Albert Pujols, and Lance Berkman drove in runs to pace the Cardinals, who move to 13-11. The Astros, 9-15, were led by former Cardinals prospect Brett Wallace, who went 3-4 with a double, and Angel Sanchez, who went 2-5 including a late double off Eduardo Sanchez that nearly turned the tide in favor of Houston.
Kyle McClellan will get the ball for the Cardinals in game three of the series; he'll line up against Nelson Figueroa, who's allowed 19 earned runs in his 20 innings in 2011.