By John Fay
Enquirer staff writer

ST. LOUIS - In case the Reds had forgotten, the St. Louis Cardinals are good. Very good.

The Cardinals beat the Reds 10-5 Monday night before a crowd of 33,957 at Busch Stadium.

"They're a good team - that's all you can say," said Aaron Harang, who took the loss for the Reds.

Albert Pujols had a big night even by his lofty standards. He was 3-for-5 with five RBI and a mammoth home run. Scott Rolen was 2-for-3 with two RBI.

Cardinals' Albert Pujols watches his eighth inning three-run homer agains the Reds in St. Louis Monday. (AP photo)

The Reds' problem was at the top of the lineup.

"You've got to keep the first two hitters off base," Reds manager Dave Miley said. "The heart of the order is going to drive in runs."

The Cardinals are on pace to win 107 games this year. And they play a lot better when they are facing the Reds. The Reds are 2-12, against St. Louis this year.

Part of the Reds' problem was scheduling. The two teams didn't meet until June 18. The Cardinals were hot by then and getting hotter. St. Louis has won 16 of 20, 20 of 26, 31 of 39 and 36 of 47.

The Reds are 9-21 since the All-Star break. The Reds are 22-40 since June 6, when they led the NL Central by two games. They're 21 1/2 games back, their largest deficit of the season.

The Reds came back from a 4-0 deficit to make it a one-run game, but then it got ugly.

Sean Casey homered with two out in the sixth. Pinch-hitter Juan Castro made it a one-run game with a two-run triple in the seventh.

That made it a 4-3 game. But Todd Van Poppel allowed a pair of runs in the seventh. Van Poppel, Phil Norton and John Riedling gave up four more in the eighth.

"What I saw is we left pitches up in the zone," Miley said. "They jumped on them. Most of them were with two strikes."

Harang started for the Reds and went five innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits. He struck out six and walked two.

The game could not have started much worse for Harang. Tony Womack led off the first with a single. Roger Cedeno followed with bloop single. That brought Harang to the meat of the Cardinals' lineup.

Pujols rocketed a double to left to score two runs. It looked like a big inning in the making. But Harang struck out Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds and Edgar Renteria to keep it a 2-0 game.

"You've got to try to stay aggressive," Harang said. "But you don't want to throw pitches that are too good, or they will make you pay."

Harang gave up two runs in the third - one scored on shortstop Felipe Lopez's throwing error - to make it 4-0.

The Reds had two hits at that point off starter Jeff Suppan and looked like they would go quietly. But, no.

Casey's homer - his 19th of the year - ended a 14-inning scoreless streak by Suppan.

In the game in the seventh, Jason LaRue singled with one out. Lopez followed with a walk. Pinch-hitter John Vander Wal was taken down for Castro when the Cards countered by bringing in left-hander Ray King.

Right move. Castro lined the first pitch to the wall in right-center for a two-run triple. But King struck out Ryan Freel and got D'Angelo Jimenez to ground out to keep it a 4-3 game. Not for long.

Van Poppel gave up fours runs in one plus innings of work. He's allowed 14 runs in his last three outings. Norton and Riedling couldn't stop the bleeding. The Cards last three runs came on Pujols' 480-foot homer on an 0-2 pitch. That made it 10-3.

Darren Bragg and Castro homered in the ninth to make it 10-5.

Cincinnati	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Freel 3b	4	0	1	0	0	1	.281
Van Poppel p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.125
PNorton p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
Riedling p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
d-Larkin ph	1	0	0	0	0	0	.307
DJimenez 2b	4	0	0	0	0	1	.260
Casey 1b	4	1	1	1	0	0	.340
Dunn lf	4	0	2	0	0	1	.282
WPena cf	3	0	0	0	0	1	.260
Bragg rf	4	1	1	1	0	1	.217
LaRue c	4	1	1	0	0	0	.245
FLopez ss	3	1	0	0	1	1	.260
Harang p	2	0	0	0	0	0	.024
RWagner p	0	0	0	0	0	0	---
a-Vander Wal ph	0	0	0	0	0	0	.162
b-JCastro ph-3b	2	1	2	3	0	0	.250
Totals	35	5	8	5	1	6

St. Louis	AB	R	H	BI	BB	SO	Avg.
Womack 2b	4	2	2	0	1	0	.290
Cedeno rf	2	2	1	0	2	0	.305
Isringhausen p	1	0	0	0	0	1	.333
Pujols 1b	5	2	3	5	0	0	.324
Rolen 3b	3	2	2	2	0	1	.330
c-MAnderson ph-rf	1	0	0	0	0	0	.227
Edmonds cf	3	0	0	0	1	3	.295
Renteria ss	4	0	1	1	0	1	.294
RSanders lf	4	1	1	0	0	0	.249
Matheny c	4	1	2	0	0	0	.245
Suppan p	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000
King p	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Mabry rf-3b	0	0	0	1	0	0	.329
Totals	33	10	12	9	4	7

Cincinnati	000	001	202	-5	8	2
St. Louis	202	000	24x	-10	12	0

a-announced for Wagner in the 7th. b-tripled for Vander Wal in the 7th. c-flied out for Rolen in the 8th. d-flied out for Riedling in the 9th.

E-FLopez (9), JCastro (7). LOB-Cincinnati 5, St. Louis 6. 2B-Freel (14), Dunn (23), Pujols 2 (33), Rolen (28). 3B-JCastro (2), RSanders (2). HR-JCastro (3), off Isringhausen; Bragg (2), off Isringhausen; Pujols (37), off Riedling; Casey (19), off Suppan. RBIs-Casey (74), Bragg (2), JCastro 3 (19), Pujols 5 (92), Rolen 2 (104), Renteria (53), Mabry (29). CS-Womack (5). S-Suppan. SF-Mabry.

Runners left in scoring position-Cincinnati 3 (DJimenez 2, Bragg); St. Louis 3 (Womack, Renteria 2).

Runners moved up-WPena.

DP-Cincinnati 1 (Casey).

Cincinnati	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Harang L, 7-5	5	6	4	3	2	6	109	4.53
RWagner	1	0	0	0	0	0	11	5.50
Van Poppel	1	4	4	3	2	0	34	6.15
PNorton	2/3	1	1	1	0	1	11	4.47
Riedling	1/3	1	1	1	0	0	8	4.50

St. Louis	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	NP	ERA
Suppan W, 11-6	6 1/3	5	3	3	1	4	103	3.86
King H, 20	1 1/3	1	0	0	0	1	17	2.18
Isringhausen S, 33	1 1/3	2	2	2	0	1	27	2.62

Van Poppel pitched to 2 batters in the 8th.

Inherited runners-scored-PNorton 2-1, Riedling 2-2, King 2-2.

IBB-off Van Poppel (Edmonds) 1. HBP-by Harang (Rolen), by Suppan (WPena).

Umpires-Home, Dan Iassogna; First, Doug Eddings; Second, Darren Spagnardi; Third, Jeff Kellogg.

T-3:14. A-33,957 (50,345).