Cardinals 9, Dodgers 5
Albert Pujols homered and Matt Holliday drove in three runs to propel the visiting St. Louis Cardinals to a 9-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.
St. Louis, which had 15 runs and 17 hits in Wednesday's win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, recorded 16 more hits on Thursday.
Jaime Garcia (2-0) allowed two earned runs over five innings to earn the win.
Holliday went 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored and Pujols blasted his second home run of the season in the fifth inning off Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda (2-1) to give the Cardinals a 5-3 lead.
Kuroda, who had a 1.42 ERA in three previous starts against the Cardinals, gave up five earned runs on 10 hits over five innings in this one.
Matt Kemp went 3-for-5 with a solo homer and his eighth stolen base for the Dodgers, who tied the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Jamey Carroll scored on a passed ball.
The Cardinals, who scored at least one run in five of the first seven innings, broke the game open with two runs in the fifth inning and three in the seventh. Yadier Molina’s two-out double in the seventh gave the Cardinals a commanding 9-3 lead.