Cardinals 11, Braves 4
Colby Rasmus homered twice and drove in four and Skip Schumaker had a big game as the St. Louis Cardinals broke out with an 11-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on Thursday.
Albert Pujols added a solo blast and Brendan Ryan drove in two and scored two for the Cardinals, who moved to within 5 ½ games of the Braves in the National League wild card race and five games of the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Central.
It looked like another bad loss for St. Louis when Atlanta got to Adam Wainwright for three runs in the bottom of the first. But the Cardinals didn’t fold, jumping right back up with five runs in the second to take the lead for good. Pedro Feliz got it started with an RBI single and Ryan added his two-run single before Schumaker capped the frame with a two-run blast off Jair Jurrjens (7-5).
They weren’t done there, adding two more in the fourth, one in the fifth and two more in the sixth on Rasmus’ two-run single. Rasmus added a solo shot in the ninth to cap the scoring.
Wainwright (18-10) settled in after the first, allowing two hits and no runs over the next seven innings to snap his own four-start losing streak.
Derrek Lee hit a two-run homer for Atlanta, which fell one game behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East.