Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Sports News

MLB: St. Louis 8, Houston 0

(Boxscore)
|
|
 
  
Published: Sept. 28, 2011 at 11:44 PM

HOUSTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- An RBI single by Albert Pujols touched off a five-run first inning Wednesday and St. Louis earned a playoff berth with an 8-0 win over Houston.

The Cardinals, having made up a nine-game deficit in the National League wild-card race during the month of September, became a playoff participant for the seventh time in 11 years when Atlanta fell to Philadelphia later in the evening. A victory by Atlanta against the Phillies would have brought about a one-game playoff between the Braves and Cardinals.

As the winner of the National League's wild-card berth for the second time, St. Louis will meet Philadelphia in the division series beginning Saturday. The Phillies will host the opening two games of the best-of-five confrontation.

Milwaukee will take on Arizona in the other opening-round series in the National League.

Chris Carpenter (11-9) limited the Astros to two hits and threw his second shutout of the season. It was the 15th shutout of his 15-year career.

Pujols had one of five run-scoring hits in the first inning to send the Cardinals coasting to the win over the worst team in baseball. Lance Berkman followed with an RBI single, David Freese drove in a run with a double and both Skip Schumaker and Nick Punto had RBI base hits.

St. Louis had 12 hits in the game, the last of them a solo homer by Allen Craig in the ninth. The Cardinals recorded a 90-72 record for the regular season.

Houston finished with 106 losses, the most in franchise history.

Brett Myers (7-14) allowed six runs on 10 hits in five innings to take the loss.

Topics: Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, Lance Berkman, David Freese, Skip Schumaker, Nick Punto, Allen Craig, Brett Myers
Recommended Stories
© 2011 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Linsanity The Daytona 500 Cheerleaders of 2012
Additional Sports News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...