Cards rookie lefthander Jaime Garcia was effective in his first major league start, although he only went 5 innings. After a shaky first inning, Padres starter Cha Seung Baek held the Cardinals bats in check and was in line for the win when he left the game in the 7th. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th with 2 on and 2 out, Troy Glaus continued his red hot July by uncorking a 3-run blast into the left field bleachers. LaRussa called Isringhausen’s number in the 9th and after retiring the first batter and getting ahead on the 2nd, Izzy surrendered 3 consecutive hits before being pulled for Brad Thompson with the tying run 90 feet away from home plate. Thompson promptly gave up a game tying double that put the go ahead run on 3rd with 1 out, yet managed to escape the jam thanks to some heads up defense from Albert Pujols. Pujols was intentionally walked in the bottom half of the inning then advanced to 3rd when a pickoff attempt went awry. The Padres mysteriously elected to intentionally walk both pinch hitter Yadier Molina and Skip Schumaker to load the bases for Aaron Miles, who sent the Busch faithful into a frenzy by knocking a 2-1 pitch over the right field fence for a walk off grand slam.

The Cardinals jumped on Greg Maddux early, tagging the future hall of famer for 6 runs in the first 4 innings. Braden Looper was equally ineffective allowing 6 runs in just 3+ innings of work. The Cards bullpen was solid, but did hiccup in the 6th to spot the Padres a 7-6 lead. Rick Ankiel homered (in a 12-pitch at-bat) to tie the game in the 7th, before Yadier Molina poked a bases loaded single through the infield to put the Cards up for good on their way to a 11-7 win.

After a pair of tight games on Friday and Saturday that could have gone either way, the Cubs were decidedly the better ballclub in the rubber game of the series. Aside from a 6th inning solo homerun from ‘All-Star’ Ryan Ludwick, the Cards couldn’t solve Cubs starter Sean Marshall. Meanwhile the Cubs lineup knocked Todd Wellemeyer around pretty well before going to work on the Cards bullpen. There was not much for the home fans to cheer about on this scorching Sunday afternoon as the Cubs cruised to a 7-1 victory.

It was a festive occasion as the heated rivals who currently sit atop the National League faced off on the 4th of July. Jim Edmonds received a standing ovation in his return to Busch Stadium, and went 0-4 with 3 strikeouts on the night. Carlos Zambrano and Braden Looper served up a pitchers dual with Zambrano keeping the Cardinals off the scoreboard as he’s prone to do. Albert Pujols hit a solo shot in the bottom of the 8th for his 300th career homerun to cut the Cubs lead to 2-1, but the home plate umpire stymied the Cards chances in the bottom of the 9th with some highly questionable strike calls and the game ended 2-1.