The St. Louis Cardinals opened up as cold as the weather on opening day and Albert Pujols was the coldest of all. Pujols' slump is officially over though and the Cardinals have been riding his bat, and everyone else's on the team too.
Now the arms are pitching in as well and the Cardinals are back on top of the Central Division after their 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals with the co-leading Cincinnati Reds on their way into town.
Kyle Loshe pitched a complete game shut out, Matt Holiday and Pujols both knocked in two-run homers and the Cardinals continued their week-long trend of heating up. Lohse only allowed two hits, walked two and had one hit batsman.
Lohse also raised his season record to 3-1 and lowered his ERA to 2.01 and his WHIP to 0.73. The Cardinals are getting the kind of production from Lohse they were hoping to get from their injured,out for the season ace Adam Wainwright.
Pujols started the season with a remarkably un-Pujols like .150 batting average through his first 10 games, the worst start ever to his career. Since then he's returned back to the Albert we've all come to know. Over the last eight games, he's hitting .358, has an on base percentage of .414, a slugging percentage of .757 and an OPS of 1.171.
Pujols is now just one home run behind Troy Tulowitzki for the National League lead. His two RBI on the afternoon bring him up to 14 for the season, which moves him into a four way tie for sixth in the NL, just one behind second place.
New Red Bird Lance Berkman had the afternoon off, but his six home runs and 15 RBI lead the team. As a team the Cardinals lead the Majors in batting average and are second only to the Reds in runs scored. In other words their bats are on track.
They're going to need them with the Reds coming to town. This will be the first time the teams who brawled and brawled last season will play this year. The teams have the two most prolific offenses in the Majors and they don't like each other.
They also look to be battling for the Central Division title this year. If you haven't been paying that much attention to the Cardinals this season, it's time to get interested as this series should be worth watching.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments