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| Sports ExtraFriday, August 24, 2007 3:32 AM CDT |
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No HR for Pujols as Cardinals fall to Marlins
ST. LOUIS — Josh Willingham homered twice with a career-best six RBIs, including a grand slam in the third inning, helping the Florida Marlins stop an eight-game losing streak with an 11-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night. Albert Pujols was 0-for-3 with a popup, line out to center and ground out, ending his streak of homering in a career-best five consecutive games when he was lifted after the sixth. Pujols’ RBI streak also ended at seven games, during which he drove in eight runs. The Marlins prevailed after manager Fredi Gonzalez ordered players, threatening fines, not to show up before 5 p.m., two hours before game time. Rick VandenHurk (4-4) allowed a run on four hits in five innings and the Cardinals had a shaky night on defense, tying a season high with four errors. A fifth ball to the wall was misplayed by left fielder Chris Duncan but ruled a hit, helping set the table for Willingham’s second career grand slam — both this year. The Cardinals (61-63) missed a chance to make it back to .500 for the first time since a 3-2 loss to the Pirates on April 14 left the defending World Series champions’ record at 6-6. Rick Ankiel hit a third-inning sacrifice fly for St. Louis, which lost for only the third time in 11 games. He made one of the errors, misjudging a basket catch on Matt Treanor’s fly ball to right in the second. But he compensated with a strong throw in the seventh to catch Mike Jacobs going for a double, and also made a strong throw to keep VandenHurk at third on Miguel Cabrera’s fly ball in the third. Willingham’s 20th homer, a mammoth drive estimated at 448 feet that cleared the left-field bleachers, came off a 3-2 pitch from Anthony Reyes (2-13) for the first runs of the game. None of the runs was earned after third baseman Scott Rolen booted VandenHurk’s grounder to open the inning, which included Duncan misjudging his proximity to the wall and whiffing on a leaping attempt on Dan Uggla’s drive off the wall, ruled a single to load the bases. Pinch hitter Cody Ross’ three-run homer, also his 100th career hit, greeted Brad Thompson in the sixth and made it 7-1. Both benches were warned after Thompson hit the next batter, Ramirez. Willingham added a two-run homer in the ninth off Tyler Johnson. A lingering hamstring injury that left Pujols’ right side numb for a time on Wednesday factored into his early exit. Pujols had homered in six of the previous seven games. and became the only player in major league history to hit 30 homers in his first seven seasons, but never came close to a long ball in the series finale. The homer streak matched the franchise record last done by Jim Edmonds from July 6-11, 2004. Notes: Willingham’s grand slam gives the Marlins four 20-homer players for the second straight season. They’re the first team in the majors to do it this season. ... Cardinals INF Aaron Miles is due to rejoin the team on Friday after joining his wife in California for the birth of a son late Wednesday. He has missed the last two games. ... The Marlins have homered in 23 of their last 25 games. ... Willingham has three career multihomer games. E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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