John Smoltz had a successful first home start with the St. Louis Cardinals. Albert Pujols made sure it was a great night for the whole team. Smoltz struck out six and allowed a run in six innings in his home debut, while Pujols put three poor at-bats behind him and hit his 41st homer leading off the bottom of the ninth for a 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night. "I could have had a better day, and I ended up chasing a couple of bad pitches," said Pujols, who hit two comebackers.
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Team Page: Nationals | Cardinals

Season Series

Date	Home	Score	Pitchers
Thu 4/30	Was	STL 9 at WAS 4	W: Perez L: Tavarez
Fri 5/1	Was	STL 6 at WAS 2	W: Wellemeyer L: Zimmermann
Sat 5/2	Was	STL 1 at WAS 6	W: Martis L: Pineiro
Sun 5/3	Was	PPD
Thu 7/23	Was	STL 4 at WAS 1	W: Wainwright L: Balester
Fri 8/28	StL	WAS 2 at STL 3	W: Motte L: Bergmann
Sat 8/29	StL	WAS 4 at STL 9	W: Boggs L: Stammen
Sun 8/30	StL	WAS 1 at STL 2	W: Wainwright L: Mock

Box Scores

Nationals (46 - 83) Season Stats | Roster | Tickets		Cardinals (75 - 55) Season Stats | Roster | Tickets
Lineup Name AB R H RBI BB 1. W Harris, CF 4 0 1 0 0 2. P Orr, 2B 3 0 1 1 0 3. R Zimmerman, 3B 2 0 0 0 2 4. A Dunn, 1B 4 0 0 0 0 4. R Belliard, 1B 0 0 0 0 0 5. J Willingham, LF 4 0 0 0 0 6. E Dukes, RF 4 1 3 0 0 7. J Bard, C 4 0 1 1 0 8. A Gonzalez, SS 4 1 1 0 0 9. J Lannan, P 3 0 0 0 0 9. J Bergmann, P 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 32 2 7 2 2		Lineup Name AB R H RBI BB 1. J Lugo, 2B 4 0 1 0 0 2. B Ryan, SS 4 0 0 0 0 3. A Pujols, 1B 4 1 1 1 0 4. M Holliday, LF 3 1 1 0 0 5. R Ludwick, RF 1 0 0 0 2 6. M DeRosa, 3B 3 0 1 0 0 7. Y Molina, C 3 0 0 0 0 8. C Rasmus, CF 3 0 0 0 0 9. J Smoltz, P 2 0 0 0 0 9. B Hawksworth, P 0 0 0 0 0 9. D Reyes, P 0 0 0 0 0 9. K Greene, PH 1 1 1 1 0 9. J Motte, P 0 0 0 0 0 Totals 28 3 5 2 2
Pitcher Name IP H R ER BB K ERA* J Lannan 8.0 4 2 2 2 2 3.95 J Bergmann (L, 2-4) 0.0 1 1 1 0 0 5.86		Pitcher Name IP H R ER BB K ERA* J Smoltz 6.0 4 1 1 1 6 0.82 B Hawksworth 1.0 2 1 1 0 0 2.86 D Reyes 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 3.77 J Motte (W, 4-4) 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 5.76
* = Season Stat
BATTING 2B: E Dukes 2 (18), J Bard (14) BASERUNNING SB: P Orr (1)CS: W Harris (3)		BATTING 2B: M Holliday (11) HR: A Pujols (41), K Greene (6)

Complete Box Score

Player News

Nationals Stephen Strasburg (WAS) News: Strasburg's knee injury is officially a patellar subluxation of the left knee, the Washington Post reports.  (RotoWire - Sat. Nov 21, 2009) Stephen Strasburg (WAS) News: Strasburg has a dislocation in his left knee joint and should be fine for spring training.  (STATS - Sat. Nov 21, 2009) Stephen Strasburg (WAS) News: Updating a previous report, number-one overall pick Stephen Strasburg will not need surgery on his injured left knee, according to MLBlogs.com. Strasburg injured his knee shagging fly balls on Thursday.  (Fanball - Fri. Nov 20, 2009)

Cardinals Matt Holliday (STL) News: The Red Sox are believed to be interested in Matt Holliday, according to the Boston Herald.   (Fanball - Fri. Nov 20, 2009) Matt Holliday (STL) News: The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the Giants will not pursue free agent outfielders Matt Holliday and Jason Bay. Giants GM Brian Sabean said that the team is only interested in players who have a genuine interest in coming to San Francisco.   (Fanball - Thu. Nov 19, 2009) Matt Holliday (STL) News: Updating an earlier item, Angels owner Arte Moreno confirmed on Thursday that the team has no plans to pursue free agent outfielder Matt Holliday, according to Fox Sports.   (Fanball - Thu. Nov 19, 2009)