St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Ryan Ludwick hit a three-run homer and knocked in four, and Colby Rasmus added a two-run shot, as the St. Louis Cardinals earned a 9-3 win over the Seattle Mariners in the opener of a three- game interleague series at Busch Stadium.
Pujols Okay After Shot To Noggin, Cards Shoot Down M’s 9-3
Albert Pujols had a big game with three hits, two walks, an RBI and two runs scored for the Cardinals, who were coming off a 1-5 road trip that included stops in Los Angeles to play the Dodgers, and Arizona. St. Louis had lost six of seven coming into the contest.
Adam Wainwright (9-4) tossed seven-plus innings and improved to 6-0 at home this season. The right-hander yielded six hits, three runs, walked a batter and fanned six in his first career game against the Mariners.
Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-4 with a solo homer, while Chone Figgins contributed a pair of hits, an RBI and scored a run for Seattle, which has dropped nine of its last 11.
Luke French (0-1), who was making his first start of the season after replacing an ineffective Ian Snell in the Mariners' rotation, was touched for four runs on six hits and a pair of walks over four innings. The left-hander did not register a strikeout.
Seattle jumped on Wainwright for a pair of first-inning runs. Suzuki led off the game with a homer into the right field seats and Figgins followed with an infield single, hustled to third on a grounder and scored on a groundout to second by Jose Lopez.
The lead was short-lived as St. Louis answered with three in the home half. Matt Holliday drew a one-out walk and Pujols singled before Ludwick hammered a three-run shot just inside the left-field foul pole to put the Cardinals ahead.
Ludwick’s sacrifice fly in the third made it a 4-2 game and the Cards posted four more in the fifth to blow the game open.
With runners on second and third and nobody out, David Freese grounded a ball to third base and Lopez's throw home hit Pujols in the back of the helmet, allowing two runners to cross the plate. Rasmus then jumped on a first-pitch changeup and cracked it over the wall in right-center for an 8-2 game.
Wainwright ran into some trouble in the eighth as the right-hander gave up a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Michael Saunders and double to Suzuki that left runners on second and third. Jason Motte came out of the Cards' bullpen and Figgins' grounder to short allowed a run to score. Motte then got the next two batters to fly out.
Pujols added an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth and Mitchell Boggs pitched the ninth inning.
St. Louis swept a three-game set from the Mariners the last time these teams squared off back in 2004...The Cardinals signed veteran right-hander Jeff Suppan earlier on Monday and he is scheduled to start on Tuesday...Holliday batted in the No. 2 spot in the order for the first time in his career and went 2-for-4 with a walk and scored twice...Wainwright hit eighth in the lineup and shortstop Brendan Ryan was ninth.
See More:
