Pujols, Ankiel lead Cards past Cubs

Aug 20, 2007, 22:55 GMT

Chicago, IL - Albert Pujols and Rick Ankiel both homered as St. Louis edged Chicago, 6-4, at Wrigley Field.

Scott Rolen finished 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and three RBI for the Cardinals, who salvaged the finale of the series and drew within three games of Chicago and Milwaukee in the NL Central. The Brewers beat the Diamondbacks, 9-0, on Monday to pull into a tie with the Cubs for the top spot in the division.

'He is a complete player,' Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said of Ankiel. 'He is a complete athlete and can do a lot of things.'

Joel Pineiro (4-2) allowed three runs on seven hits in five innings to pick up his third consecutive win. Jason Isringhausen hurled two scoreless innings of relief to earn his 23rd save on the season.

Daryle Ward, Mark DeRosa and Derrek Lee all homered for the Cubs, who lost for the first time in four games.

Ted Lilly (13-6) surrendered five runs on seven hits in six innings of work en route to the loss.

'There are a few things I am going to do to try and throw the ball the way I would like,' said Lilly. 'I don't think I am gong to over analyze things but I need to make some adjustments.'

The Cards went on top with a pair of runs in the first. Brendan Ryan led off the game with a single and quickly moved to third when Ankiel doubled. Lilly flirted with getting out of trouble by getting Pujols and Juan Encarnacion to pop out but Rolen came through with a big two-out, two-run double.

The Cubs evened things in the second when Ward and DeRosa connected on back- to-back, one-out homers.

St. Louis responded in the third to go back on top. Pujols got things started by drawing a one-out walk and moved to third on an Encarnacion double before crossing the plate when Rolen slapped another double to left. Jim Edmonds then made it 4-2 with an RBI grounder to first.

Chicago got a run back in the home half, however. Ryan Theriot led off the frame with a single, advanced to third on Lee's one-out base hit and scored on Aramis Ramirez's RBI single to left.

The Cards carved out some breathing room in the fifth when Pujols led off the inning with his 28th home run of the season.

Lee tightened things again in the sixth by depositing his 14th homer of the year over the wall in left-center.

The power parade continued in the seventh when Ankiel greeted Carmen Pignatiello by drilling his fourth homer of year to make it a 6-4 game.

The skies opened up before the bottom of the seventh was set to begin and the game was delayed for 87 minutes.

When things resumed, Isringhausen was able to shut down the Cubs to secure the victory.

Game Notes

La Russa managed his 4,408th game, tying him with Bucky Harris for third place on the career games managed list...Lee's HR was his 100th as a member of the Cubs...Lilly was 9-1 in his previous 13 trips to the hill...Chicago is now 7-4 against the Cardinals this season...The Cubs optioned infielder Ronny Cedeno to Triple-A Iowa and designated catcher Koyie Hill for assignment after the game.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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