Albert Pujols's OPS heading into Saturday's game against the Chicago Cubs was just .761, but after he finally hit double digits with his 10th home run of the year Friday it looked like things were about to turn. Sunday morning his OPS is .808, and thanks to a pitch from Jeff Samardzija that was bad but not quite bad enough the Cardinals had a 5-4 win over the Cubs. Pujols homered twice, doubled, and drove in four runs to pace the Redbirds, who also got an RBI from re-resurgent Lance Berkman. Carlos Pena homered for the Cubs, who threw six scoreless relief innings at the Cardinals before Pujols connected.
Eduardo Sanchez, who threw two perfect relief innings with two strikeouts, picked up the extra-innings win; Kyle Lohse, the Cardinals' starter, went 5.2 innings and was dogged by hits despite striking out five with no walks allowed. Former Cub Ryan Theriot bumped his hitting streak to 18 games, while Matt Carpenter, the Cardinals' rookie third baseman, doubled and made an outstanding diving stop in his debut.