The St. Louis Cardinals needed another clutch performance from Lance Berkman to come away with a win Thursday afternoon, and they just happened to get it—the impossibly hot Houston Astros cast-off hit his 10th home run of the season in the eighth inning to plate three and put the Cardinals ahead of the Florida Marlins for good by a score of 6-3. Albert Pujols went 3-3 with a walk and Matt Holliday and Colby Rasmus had two hits in support of Jake Westbrook, who threw six innings of three-run ball with a season-high eight strikeouts. Josh Johnson took the loss, his first of the season; he was responsible for the two runs on base when Berkman homered against Florida reliever Mike Dunn.
The Cardinals got two scoreless innings from relievers Jason Motte and Eduardo Sanchez to earn the win and the save—Motte’s first win of the season, Sanchez’s third save. The Cardinals will go on to face the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend.; they improve to 18-14 on the season.