Cardinals 10, Astros 3

HOUSTON – Albert Pujols homered twice, going 4-for-5 with three RBIs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to their fifth straight win over the Houston Astros. 10-3 .

Pujols homered in the first and fifth innings off Wade Miller (5-5), his second multihomer game this season and the eighth of his career.

Pujols has five homers in his last seven games, raising his season total to 14, which tied Arizona’s Steve Finley and Colorado’s Jeromy Burnitz and Vinny Castilla for the major league lead.

Cody McKay went 4-for-5 for the Cardinals, who had 16 hits, and Roger Cedeno hit his first home run since last Sept. 16 for the New York Mets against the Chicago Cubs. St. Louis tied the Astros for second in the NL Central at 26-22.

Woody Williams (2-5) gave up three runs and eight hits in six innings.

Houston led 3-2 in the fifth when Pujols’ second homer tied the score. Scott Rolen’s triple chased Miller, who allowed four runs and seven hits in four-plus innings, and Edgar Renteria’s RBI grounder off Mike Gallo put the Cardinals ahead 4-3.

St. Louis added five runs in the eighth, when a controversial single by Ray Lankford led to the ejection of Houston manager Jimy Williams.

After McKay’s RBI single, Lankford hit a high popup down the right-field line that second baseman Jeff Kent misjudged and allowed to drop for a single. The ball appeared to change course, and Kent and Williams appeared to argue that it hit a beam of the roof.

Kent overthrew third on the play for an error that allowed John Mabry to score from second for a 6-3 lead, and when third baseman Jose Vizcaino’s throw home hit Mabry in the back, the runners advanced to second and third on the second error.

Cedeno followed a three-run homer. Lankford had an RBI single in the ninth off Brandon Duckworth.

After Pujols’ first homer, Kent’s RBI single tied the score in the bottom half, and Craig Biggio put Houston ahead with an RBI double in the second. Pujols hit a tying single in the third, but Miller’s run-scoring single put Houston back ahead in the fourth.

Notes: Kent extended hit career best hitting streak to 14 games.

AP-ES-05-29-04 1948EDT