Cardinals Win Debut in New Home

The new Busch Stadium was a hitter’s and pitcher’s park in its opening game, at least for Mark Mulder.

The Cardinals’ left-hander worked into the ninth inning and hit his first career home run to help St. Louis beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 6-4, on Monday in the first major league game at St. Louis’ $365-million ballpark.

Scott Rolen’s two-run double in the fourth off Tomo Ohka (0-1) gave the Cardinals the lead for good and Albert Pujols hit his fourth homer, a drive to the left-center power alley estimated at 445 feet.

The Cardinals’ Pujols and Chris Carpenter, the NL MVP and Cy Young Award winners, threw out dual ceremonial first pitches to retired Cardinal greats Willie McGee and Bob Gibson.

Houston 5, Washington 4 -- Eric Bruntlett hit a sacrifice fly off Mike Stanton (0-1) that scored Craig Biggio in the 12th inning in Houston.

After pinch-hitter Daryle Ward hit a home run off Brad Lidge in the 10th inning, Morgan Ensberg homered off Chad Cordero in the bottom half.

Chad Qualls (1-1) got the final six outs for the Astros, who took three of four in the series.

Atlanta 5, Philadelphia 3 -- Marcus Giles hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning of Atlanta’s home opener before a sellout crowd of 47,332 that included former President Carter.

Giles’ homer came in the seventh off Ryan Franklin (0-1). Philadelphia had tied the score in the top half on Bobby Abreu’s sacrifice fly off Oscar Villareal (3-0), who broke a tie with Dodger Brad Penny for the NL lead in wins.

Chris Reitsma, who blew a lead the previous day by giving up two ninth-inning runs in San Francisco, pitched a scoreless inning for his third save.