Cards Sweep O’s, Regain Share of NL Central Lead

Get your brooms out; a much needed sweep is in the books for the Cardinals. St. Louis completed the three-game sweep with a 9-6 victory over Baltimore tonight. For the Cardinals, their first road sweep since August of 2010 propels them back into a first place tie with Milwaukee for the NL Central lead, having gained three games in three days on the Brewers. For the Orioles, they are now a season-worst eight games below the .500 mark with a record of 35-43. The Cards are now 4-5 without superstar Albert Pujols and 44-38 on the season.

Lance Berkman capped off an exceptional offensive series for St. Louis, blasting two home runs and driving in three. Jon Jay hit a three run homer to seal the deal, and additional RBI’s came from Ryan Theriot, Skip Schumaker, and Tony Cruz. Although he was able to pick up the win  to improve to 7-3, Jaime Garcia allowed five runs (two HR) on 10 hits, one walk, and three strikeouts in just 5.1 innings. He left too many pitches over the plate and paid for it as a result. This is now the fifth time in his last eight starts that Garcia has failed to reach the eighth inning, which should be of some concern to Dave Duncan and Tony La Russa.

After outscoring their opponent 20-9 during this last series, the Cardinals will turn the calendar to July and hope to continue this winning streak against the Rays in Tampa Bay. Westbrook, McClellan, and Lohse are scheduled to pitch the upcoming series to finish out this stretch of Interleague games against the AL East. Looking ahead, the Cards will then come home for a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds, who remain just two gains behind in the division.

A full game recap can be found here.