Joel Pineiro pitches 7 sharp innings, Cardinals rip Reds rookie Johnny Cueto in 7-2 victory

Troy Glaus and Rick Ankiel combined for four hits and five RBIs their first two at-bats for the Cardinals, who scored three runs in the first and four in the second. Skip Schumaker tied his career best with four hits and Albert Pujols was 0-for-4 to end a nine-game hitting streak, but walked off Josh Fogg in the eighth and has reached base safely in all 28 games.

Cueto (1-3) allowed seven runs, six earned, on eight hits in only 1 2-3 innings in his sixth career start. The 22-year-old right-hander worked at least six innings in each of his first five starts, including seven innings three times, but was behind 3-0 after retiring one batter and departed with a 5.40 ERA.

Ken Griffey Jr., who needs three homers to become the sixth player to reach 600, was 0-for-4 and hasn't homered in six games. He was misidentified on a scoreboard graphic his first at-bat, with a different Reds left-handed hitter that might have been Dan Driessen shown instead, although in subsequent at-bats his mug shot was used.

Pineiro (2-2) gave up a leadoff single to Corey Patterson in the first and issued three of his four walks in the first two innings, then retired the last 12 batters in order, striking out three in seven innings. He benefited from an unusual double play to escape damage in the first when both Patterson and Jeff Keppinger were caught in rundowns.

The Reds were stuck on one hit with two outs in the ninth when Brandon Phillips singled off Anthony Reyes and Adam Dunn followed with his fourth homer to straightaway center.

Glaus circled the bases on a two-run double to left-center in the fourth, taking off from second when left fielder Dunn lost his grip on the ball and the relay dribbled mere feet away. Ankiel also doubled in the fourth, his third hit, to match a career high.

The Reds' day began poorly when Patterson got stuck in no man's land running for home on Phillips' one-out grounder to third with runners on second and third in the first. Patterson kept the rundown going long enough for Keppinger to advance to third and Phillips made it to second, but when catcher Yadier Molina headed for third to tag out Patterson, he stepped off the bag and Keppinger mistakenly retreated for second and was quickly tagged out.

There were six exchanges on the play with Molina handling the ball twice and right fielder Schumaker also participating.

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