Rasmus, Ankiel homer in Cardinals' 13-4 win

[June 11, 2009]  MIAMI (AP) -- Rick Ankiel finished a single shy of the cycle and Colby Rasmus also homered as the St. Louis Cardinals snapped a five-game losing streak with a 13-4 victory over the Florida Marlins on Wednesday night.

The Cardinals scored their season high runs on 18 hits. It was the most runs scored by St. Louis since Aug. 18, 2008, at Atlanta in an 18-3 win.

Brendan Ryan went a career-best 4 for 4, all singles, scored twice and drove in a run, while Tyler Greene had a career-high three hits.

Adam Wainwright (6-4) allowed four runs and four hits over seven innings to break a personal two-game losing streak.

Chris Volstad (4-6) allowed six runs and 10 hits over 5 2-3 innings in losing his third consecutive start.

The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead in the first when Chris Duncan doubled with one out, Albert Pujols walked and Rasmus hit the first pitch from Volstad over the wall in right field. Rasmus, a 22-year-old rookie, was batting clean up for the second straight game.

The Marlins got one run back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Hanley Ramirez.

St. Louis made it 4-1 in the second on Skip Schumaker's RBI double, a run Florida got back in the third on Jorge Cantu's run-scoring single.

Greene drove in a run in the fourth with a single. Jeremy Hermida drove in his first run for the Marlins in the fifth with a single.

Ankiel led off the sixth with a triple and Yadier Molina followed with a single to make it 6-3.

Hermida, who hit a walkoff homer in the ninth for the Marlins on Tuesday, made it 6-4 in the seventh with a solo homer off Wainwright.

St. Louis broke it open with four runs in the eighth off reliever Cristhian Martinez and Ankiel hit a two-run homer off reliever Burke Badenhop in the ninth.

Pujols, mired in an 0-for-15 slump and hitless in his last four games, singled in the third and finished 1 for 4.

Notes: Cantu left the game in the top of the seventh because of dizziness. ... The gash above Marlins C John Baker left eye when he struck by Pujols' backswing on Tuesday took six stitches to close. He is day-to-day and available only in an emergency. ... Cardinals utility player Joe Thurston is with his wife, Raquel, in California for the birth of their daughter. He is expected back Thursday.

[Associated Press]

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