Wainwright gets another blast from Pujols

Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Andy LaRoche, left, watches as
St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols rounds third after hitting a
three-run home run off Pirates pitcher Denny Bautista in the sixth
inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Friday.
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Adam Wainwright almost didn't get his MLB-leading 17th win tonight. But a homer from Albert Pujols put the Cardinals ahead of the Pirates, and help from other Cards clinched the win.

The Cardinals were ahead 5-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning; then Wainwright gave up 6 runs.

Pujols immediately answered back in the sixth with a three-run homer, and the Cards never looked back. They won the game 14-7.

"I think it's about time we picked our pitchers up," Pujols said to MLB.com. "Obviously, they've been pitching so great over the past six weeks and we haven't scored enough runs. Today, we came back, he gave up six and we helped him to get the win. I think he deserved that because he's been pitching pretty well for us and we haven't scored a lot of runs for him."

The home run was Pujols' 43rd for the season, and also his first-ever hit against Pirates pitcher Denny Bautista.

"I didn't care if I didn't have any hits in my career against him," Pujols said. "My idea was to make sure I didn't chase a bad pitch, and my approach was to try to hit the ball back through the middle. Obviously, I hit the ball out of the park."

And Wainwright was grateful for that hit.

"Up by five, you cannot walk anybody, to put crooked-number possibilities on the board," Wainwright said to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "The team was my saving grace. If it wasn't for our team scoring (nine more) runs for me, I would be really hard to talk to. I didn't break anything, but I would have wanted to."

Despite the clutch hit, Pujols is likely out of contention for the triple crown that some were confident he would get earlier in the season. He remains at 11th place in batting average, with .320; is in second place behind Prince Fielder in RBIs, with 116; and is keeping steady in first place with his 43 home runs.

The Cardinals, however, pulled back into a tie with the Dodgers for the best record in the National League. They are now 11.5 games ahead of the second-place Cubs in the NL Central, and they're magic number is 17. The Cards play the Pirates again tomorrow at 6:05 p.m. CT.

Follow the Albert Pujols Examiner on Twitter: @AllAlbertPujols

More game wrap-ups:

Pujols, Ludwick rescue Wainwright

Cardinals prevail in battle of the bats

Ludwick, Pujols bring the thunder as Cardinals pound Pirates

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