St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Albert Pujols hammered a three-run homer and knocked in four runs total, and Adam Wainwright tossed eight shutout innings, as the St. Louis Cardinals opened their 2010 home schedule with a 5-0 win over the Houston Astros at Busch Stadium.
Wainwright, Cardinals Shutout Astros To Keep Houston Winless
Pujols finished 2-for-3 with a walk, and Ryan Ludwick added four hits, including a triple, an RBI and a run scored for the Cardinals, who dropped an 8-7 decision to Milwaukee on Sunday but improved to 5-2 this season.
Wainwright (2-0) followed up an impressive start last Wednesday by scattering six hits and a walk while striking out seven.
Michael Bourn had two hits for winless Houston, which finished with seven hits -- all singles -- in the loss. Wandy Rodriguez (0-2) struggled in his second start of the season by giving up seven hits, four runs and two walks in 4 1/3 innings of work.
Pujols' got the Cardinals on the board with an RBI single in the top of the first. Then, after Skip Schumaker and Ludwick reached with back-to-back one- out singles in the third, Pujols cracked a three-run homer into the Cardinals' bullpen in left for a 4-0 game.
St. Louis threatened again in the fifth, loading the bases with one down, but Wilton Lopez replaced Rodriguez and got Matt Holliday to ground into an inning-ending 5-3 double-play.
Ludwick’s triple off the right-center field wall in the seventh plated Schumaker, who reached first after failing to move Wainwright to third on a sacrifice bunt attempt.
Jason Motte came on for Wainwright in the ninth and gave up a single to Hunter Pence leading off; however, he got Carlos Lee to bounce into a 5-4-3 double- play before retiring Geoff Blum on a fly out to left.
The Astros have dropped seven of their last 10 versus the Cardinals...Houston fell to 0-7 and is off to its worst start since going 0-9 to begin the 1983 season...Wainwright improved to 8-1 in his career against the Astros...Rodriguez fell to 3-10 in 16 lifetime games -- 15 starts -- against the Cardinals...St. Louis improved to 63-56 all-time in home openers...The Astros failed to record an extra-base hit for the second straight game.
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