Cardinals rough up Hudson

[StlCards4ever515]

Mulder picks up victory against former teammate

ATLANTA -- Friday night's game between the Cardinals and Braves was certainly memorable in its own way. But if the game tape is put in a time capsule, they'll need to give it a big, red stamp: "NOT FOR PURISTS."
The highly anticipated pitchers' duel between former teammates Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson never materialized, but St. Louis nonetheless won a compelling game against Atlanta, 6-5, on Friday night at Turner Field.

The game included three errors, two baserunners caught in rundowns, two pitching changes in the bottom of the ninth alone, and plenty else that marked it as not exactly clean, crisp and pure. But it was competitive and entertaining ... and extremely difficult to win.

St. Louis struck Hudson for more runs in the first inning (four) than he had previously allowed all season (three), but Mulder and three relievers barely held on for the victory. It was only the third time in Hudson's career that the right-hander took the loss when receiving four or more runs of support.

"That game had so many big moments," said Cards manager Tony La Russa. "One of them is our club coming out of there and working so hard offensively against a great pitcher like Hudson. Of course, they did the same thing against Mulder. Mark wasn't his sharpest, and he gets us through seven innings. That was huge.

"And then, each of the three relievers got clutch outs. I thought we did a good job of staying after it for nine innings. We hit some balls hard and defensively played very well. What would you pick from there? I wouldn't pick anything."

The Cardinals nearly let Hudson off the hook after putting the sinkerballer in a deep hole. Atlanta rallied for two in the bottom of the first and two more in the third against Mulder. But Albert Pujols ripped a two-run homer in the top of the fifth, scoring Larry Walker, to break the tie.

"Obviously, he's one of the toughest guys to face in all of baseball to get out," Hudson said. "But regardless of how tough they are, it's my job to get them out. I just didn't make the pitch there."

The Braves pulled within a run on Marcus Giles' single in the home half of the fifth, but Mulder induced an inning-ending double play to get out of trouble with the heart of the order looming. St. Louis turned three double plays, all of them at key moments.

"I would make two, three bad pitches in a row," said Mulder, "and then I would make a great pitch and get a double play. It's not that everything was bad. It's just, I kept getting myself in trouble and trying to make pitches to get out of it."

Cardinals hitters came out swinging against Hudson -- with the exception of Walker, who came out bunting. David Eckstein opened the game with a single, and Walker reached on a bunt single. Pujols struck out, but back-to-back singles by Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen made it 3-0. Mark Grudzielanek capped the rally with a run-scoring double.

"Just getting four runs off a guy like Hudson was huge for Mulder's psyche," Walker said. "Going up there with a four-run lead against his buddy and ex-teammate, it's the best way we could have eased the situation up for him. ... He says he's never nervous, but you've got to have a little bit of nerves going up against your good friend and ex-teammate. I'm sure that calmed him down a little bit."

Mulder gutted his way through seven, throwing what seemed like a lot more than 93 pitches. When he handed the ball to the Cards' reconfigured relief corps, the Braves had their 2-3-4 hitters coming up, and the game was far from over.

Julian Tavarez got a double play after Brian Jordan's single, though, and escaped from the eighth. When he allowed the first two runners of the ninth to reach base, the wheels began to turn. Righty-swinging Raul Mondesi popped up, and La Russa called on Ray King to face pinch-hitter Chipper Jones. After King induced another pop fly, Al Reyes made his way in from the 'pen to retire Eddie Perez and end the game.

Atlanta had the left-handed Adam LaRoche available, but Perez is the Braves' backup catcher, and removing him might have put manager Bobby Cox in a quandary.

"We were in good position there," said La Russa, "because if he hit LaRoche, Reyes is good against left-handed hitters. All I know is Eddie Perez has had some success early in the season against left-handed pitching."

So Reyes closed it out, becoming the fourth Cardinal to record a save in the past week.

"As a reliever, when he calls on you in that situation, you feel good," said Reyes, who hadn't tallied a big league save since 2001. "You feel like you belong here and they trust you. I was more comfortable, the way they gave me the ball, and I came in and did the job."

The Redbirds have won 12 of their last 14 games, and they sport the National League's best record at 15-6. St. Louis leads the Cubs by 3 1/2 games in the NL Central.

[ATLien]

Braves still took the series.