The Associated Press

Albert Pujols picked up today where Jim Edmonds left off the night before.

Pujols homered twice and tied a career high with five RBIs, and Sterling Hitchcock threw six shutout innings in the St. Louis Cardinals' 5-0 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park.

"It went from the Edmonds show to the Pujols show," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

Besides driving in all the runs in the game, Pujols crushed a 477-foot homer that hit on the roof of the batter's eye building and bounced over it - a first at the new park.

Reds starter Danny Serafini (0-2), who made his second start since signing with Cincinnati out of the Mexican League, allowed two runs, four hits and three walks while striking out three Cardinals in six innings.

"I've got to quit giving up home runs," Serafini said. "My last game, I gave up two. This time, I gave up one big one."

Pujols has 38 homers this season, and 108 for his career to move past Joe DiMaggio for third place on the list for most homers in a player's first three years.

"I'm not thinking about that now," Pujols said. "After the season's over, I'll look back at it, but September's going to be a tough month. I need to finish strong. We need to finish strong."

Hitchcock (2-0) allowed three hits, walked one and struck out four in his first start for the Cardinals, who won for the fourth time in five games.

"He threw six great innings for us, and we're not struggling with the bullpen like we were earlier in the year," Pujols said. "All our starters have to do now is throw six good innings."

The Reds (59-77) have lost seven of their last eight, including six of seven on the homestand.

Hitchcock, who was making his second start of the season and first since being traded from the New York Yankees on August 22, retired the first 10 batters before Ray Olmedo singled to left with one out in the fourth.

Miguel Cairo led off the sixth with a single to center. Pujols followed with his 36th homer over the batter's eye.

In the eighth, Pujols followed back-to-back singles by Bo Hart and Cairo with a line drive into the Reds' bullpen in left-center field off Danny Graves. He tied his career high for homer, set in 2001 - when he won the NL Rookie of the Year award.

"That pitch was 2 feet off the ground," Miley said. "Most hitters who swing at the pitch would probably ground into a double play."

With the win, the Cardinals guaranteed that they would at least share first place with Houston in the NL Central heading into a five-game series with the third-place Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field starting Monday.

Notes: The win was the second straight for St. Louis at Great American Ball Park after five consecutive losses. ... CF Jim Edmonds wasn't in the starting lineup as St. Louis started all right-handers against the left-handed Serafini. ... Edmonds struck out as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and stayed in. ... Serafini threw 30 pitches in the first, including a combined eight with two strikes that were fouled off by Pujols and Rolen, and 25 in the second. ... The Cardinals earned their fourth consecutive series win since being swept in a three-game series at Philadelphia Aug. 15-17. ... St. Louis moved a season-high eight games over .500 in its fourth try.

St. Louis	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Totals	34	5	8	5	4	5
Hart 2b	4	1	1	0	1	0	.276
Cairo lf	5	2	3	0	0	0	.271
Pujols 1b	4	2	2	5	0	0	.368
Rolen 3b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.288
EduPerez rf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.275
Springer p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Renteria ss	3	0	0	0	1	0	.334
Matheny c	3	0	0	0	1	2	.240
Taguchi cf	2	0	0	0	0	0	.368
a-OPalmeiro ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.274
Eldred p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
Kline p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.500
d-Robinson ph-rf	0	0	0	0	1	0	.266
Hitchcock p	2	0	1	0	0	0	.333
b-Edmonds ph-cf	2	0	1	0	0	1	.285

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Totals	31	0	4	0	3	7
Freel cf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.274
Olmedo ss	4	0	1	0	0	1	.263
DJimenez 2b	3	0	1	0	1	0	.311
Branyan 1b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.213
Smitherman lf	4	0	0	0	0	1	.238
Hummel 3b	4	0	0	0	0	3	.267
LaRue c	3	0	1	0	1	0	.226
WPena rf	4	0	1	0	0	0	.156
Serafini p	1	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.235
c-Stenson ph	0	0	0	0	1	0	.297
Graves p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.113
Reith p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000

2

St. Louis	000	002	030	-5	8	1
Cincinnati	000	000	000	-0	4	0

a-grounded out for Taguchi in the 7th. b-struck out for Hitchcock in the 7th. c-walked for Riedling in the 7th. d-walked for Kline in the 9th.

E-Renteria (16). LOB-St. Louis 6, Cincinnati 8. 2B-Cairo (15), LaRue (19). HR-Pujols 2 (37), off Graves, Serafini. RBIs-Pujols 5 (114). S-Serafini. GIDP-Taguchi.

Runners left in scoring position-St. Louis 2 (Cairo, Pujols); Cincinnati 4 (Freel 3, Smitherman).

DP-Cincinnati 1 (Olmedo and Branyan).

St. Louis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Hitchcock W, 2-0	6	3	0	0	1	4	85	0.75
Eldred H, 8	1	1	0	0	1	1	27	4.39
Kline	1	0	0	0	0	1	12	4.17
Springer	1	0	0	0	1	1	16	6.08

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Serafini L, 0-2	6	4	2	2	3	3	115	4.91
Riedling	1	0	0	0	0	2	10	5.30
Gras	1	3	3	3	0	0	13	5.37
Reith	1	1	0	0	1	0	16	4.70

Umpires-Home, Jim Wolf; First, Scott Nelson; Second, Larry Young; Third, Mike Everitt.

T-2:47. A-29,272 (42,263).

How the runs scored:

Cardinals sixth. Cairo singled to center. Pujols homered to center on the first pitch, Cairo scored. Rolen struck out. Perez grounded out, shortstop Olmedo to first baseman Branyan. Renteria popped out to second baseman Jimenez.

2 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on. Cardinals 2, Reds 0.

Cardinals eighth. Graves pitching. Hart singled to center. Cairo singled to left, Hart to second. Pujols homered to center on a 1-1 count, Hart scored, Cairo scored. Rolen lined out to second baseman Jimenez. Perez popped out to first baseman Branyan. Renteria flied out to center fielder Freel.

3 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on. Cardinals 5, Reds 0.