The Houston Astros picked up their fifth consecutive victory and second straight against the defending World Series champions St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night with an 8-2 final.
Both teams scored early, with the Cardinals drawing first blood in the first inning when former Astro Carlos Beltran hit an RBI single to shallow right field to score Rafael Furcal. But that didn't have anything on what Chris Johnson had coming up.
With the bases loaded, Johnson homered to left field and gave Houston an early 4-1 lead and definitely momentum to build from. It was Johnson's first grand slam of his career. The Astros scored another pair of runs in the fourth inning center fielder Justin Maxwell hit an RBI-double to plate Johnson and Bud Norris brought in Maxwell with a sacrifice fly ball to left later in the inning.
Norris pitched six innings and gave up three hits with no earned runs.
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