Cards beat Brewers 7-3; Lohse stays perfect (4/28)

Yadier Molina normally makes his presence felt for what he does behind the plate with his glove and his cannon of an arm--and on a day where he recieved two awards for his outstanding defense, he stole the show with his outstanding performance at the plate with the bat in his hands.

Molina went 4-for-4 with a two-run home run and his first-place St. Louis Cardinals defeated defending National League MVP Ryan Braun and the Milwaukee Brewers 7-to-3 for a second straight game in front of another sell-out crowd inside Busch Stadium.

In what is a rematch of last season's National League Championship Series, both teams seem to be going in completely opposite directions.

The win for the Cardinals improved there record to 14-7 and improved there NL Central division lead over the second-place Brewers by a total of five games.

Kyle Lohse joined teammate Lance Lynn in the four-win category today as well as he pitched six innings of work, giving up three runs on six hits along with five strikeouts. It certainly wasn't as good as his first three starts, especially considering he walked a season-high four batters, but all in all, a win is a win.

Milwaukee got offense by two solo home runs from the likes of Aramis Ramirez and Alex Gonzalez; as well as a run that was walked in with catcher' George Kottaras at the plate in the top half of the sixth inning by Lohse.

Ramirez extended his hitting-streak to six-games following his first inning home run, and drove in the first run off of Lohse in the first five innings of any of his first four starts to the season.

In celebrating of his 29th birthday, David Freese got into the action as he went 1-for-4 with a solo home run deep to center field in the fourth inning to give the Cards' a 3-1 lead at the time. Both Jon Jay and Skip Schumaker also stayed hot as Jay finished the game 3-for-4 with an RBI and Schumaker with a hit and two runs batted in.

In a three-to-three tie game in the sixth inning, Molina's two-run home run put the birds' up 5-to-3 and eventually proved to be the game-winner. Following the blast, Molina recieved a curtain call from the home-crowd.

Estrada, who only made his second start of the season today, pitched six innings. He gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits, striking out two as well as walking two.

The bullpen for the Cardinals continued to step it up as Marte, Boggs, and Motte all combined for three innings of work while only allowing one hit, no runs, and four strikeouts.

The Cardinals improved to 4-1 against the Brewers this season, and will be going for a three game series sweep on Sunday afternoon (1:15 pm Central Time) when Jaime Garcia duels it out against arguably the ace of Milwaukee, Zach Grienkie.