The Cardinals downed the Pirates to take two out of three games during this series. A key part to the Cardinals' early season start has been the hot bat of Rafael Furcal who went 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base in today's action. The oft injured Furcal is currently sporting a near .400 OBP and a near .500 SLG. While it's unreasonable to expect him to continue hitting in this fashion, Furcal's presence has been a notable difference from previous iterations of Cardinals shortstops having a much more balanced offensive and defensive profile.

Kyle Lohse had a strong outing pitching 7 shutout innings before allowing a run to start the 8th. Lohse featured superb command in the game not walking a single batter and throwing 69 of his 97 pitches for strikes. Mitchell Boggs would relieve Lohse in the 8th and induce a double play to end the inning. Boggs has yet to walk a batter through 9 innings this year.

The 11-5 Cardinals will take on the 4-11 Cubs in Chicago Monday night at 7:05pm.

One injury related note is that Jon Jay is headed back to St. Louis for further tests to determine the full extent of his shoulder injury. Despite initial reports that there was no structural damage to the shoulder, Jay continued to experience soreness during practice. Shane Robinson got the start in CF for Sunday's win over the Pirates and Skip Schumaker made a pinch hit appearance scoring the Cardinals 5th run.