Slugger contritubes pair of blasts in matinee blowout of Mets 04/23/09 6:21 PM ET Box > ST. LOUIS -- Perhaps it was a day for hyperbole. Or maybe Albert Pujols and Rick Ankiel are just that good. Pujols hit two home runs, collected three hits, drove in three runs and scored four times, and Ankiel cranked three extra-base hits and made a spectacular diving catch, sending the Cardinals to a 12-8 win over the Mets at Busch Stadium on Thursday. The Cardinals completed a three-game sweep of the Mets and won their seventh successive home game. Afterward, manager Tony La Russa called Pujols "the perfect player" while teammate Skip Schumaker called Ankiel "the best athlete I've ever been around." If all you saw was Thursday's game, you'd have a hard time disagreeing with either assessment. Pujols hit a solo homer in the first inning to get the Cardinals on the board, taking a Livan Hernandez fastball on the outside part of the plate, staying with it and drilling it to the opposite field. In the fourth, he crushed a ball to the left side, hitting it so hard that Gold Glove third baseman David Wright couldn't handle it, picking up a base hit. And in the fifth, Pujols hammered another Hernandez fastball, this one a mistake right in the middle of the strike zone, 429 feet to straightaway center. Three rockets, to three different parts of the field. "If my swing is good," Pujols said, "I'm going to hit the ball hard everywhere. My job is to try to see a pitch that I can hit, and drive it." La Russa was a bit less matter-of-fact about the two-time National League Most Valuable Player. "Perfect player, in my opinion," the manager said. Pujols even stole a base after his single, helping ignite the three-run rally that gave the Cardinals the lead for good. Ankiel, meanwhile, also got in on the fun for the Redbirds. He laced the RBI double that scored Pujols in the fourth, and he cranked a solo homer -- his first of the year -- an inning later. Another double in the eighth inning gave Ankiel as many extra-base hits on Thursday as he had all season entering the game. The outburst increased Ankiel's slugging percentage from .271 to .404 -- still not where it likely will be before long, but a drastic improvement. "I never had a worry about Rick," Schumaker said. "I don't think anybody in this clubhouse did. I know some writers did, but Rick's the best athlete I've ever been around, bar none. I wasn't too worried." It's been an up-and-down week for Ankiel. He entered the weekend in a slump, but hit three balls very hard in a deceptive 1-for-5 outing last Thursday in Chicago. When he hit a pinch-double the next day, it appeared that Ankiel was coming around, but he followed that with an ugly 0-for-6 on Sunday. He racked up a double and two singles in the series opener against the Mets, only to go 0-for-4 with two strikeouts on Wednesday. But on Thursday, he looked more like himself than he has all year. "When he takes pitches right out of the strike zone, it works," La Russa said. "He gets the count in his favor, and when he gets a ball in the strike zone he makes a good swing." Ankiel even added a highlight-reel catch. Gary Sheffield led off the second inning with a screaming line drive to right-center. Ankiel gave chase, but at first it did not appear he had much of a chance. He kept closing on the ball, though, and hauled it in to prevent at least a double. "Coming off the bat, I wasn't sure," he said. "As I got closer, I knew I had a shot. And once I got within 20 feet, I knew that I had a real legit chance. I went for it and everything worked out. It was fun, for sure." Starter Kyle Lohse pitched five effective -- but somewhat inefficient -- innings for St. Louis. Lohse allowed two runs, one earned, on eight hits. Defense was about the only blemish on the day for the Cards, as they committed two errors. Lohse sustained a right knee injury covering first base on a play in the fifth inning, and was scheduled to undergo an MRI exam on Thursday evening. The Cardinals improved to 11-5 on the year, equaling their best 16-game start under La Russa. The last time the Cards had a better start to the season was 1982, when they opened 13-3. --

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