Pujols is back playing against the Tigers

[Gary]

Detroit Tigers 10 St. Louis Cardinals 6

DETROIT (AP) -- Brandon Inge and Curtis Granderson homered to help the Detroit Tigers beat the St. Louis Cardinals 10-6 on Friday night.

Albert Pujols went 4-for-4 with his 26th homer and a walk in his second game since coming off the disabled list. He had been sidelined since June 3 with a strained oblique muscle.

The Tigers lost catcher Ivan Rodriguez to a wrist injury after he was hit with a foul tip. X-rays were negative and his status is day-to-day.

Rookie Justin Verlander (9-4) picked up the win, allowing four runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out five, but couldn't get past six innings for the fifth straight start.

Fernando Rodney pitched two innings. Todd Jones gave up Pujols' homer in the ninth.

Chris Carpenter (6-4) lost for just the second time in seven starts, allowing a season-high seven runs and nine hits in seven innings.

The Tigers broke open a 3-3 tie with four runs in the fifth inning. Craig Monroe led off with a double and scored on Granderson's one-out double. Placido Polanco followed with an RBI single, and took third on Wilson's double before Magglio Ordonez made it 7-3 with a two-run single.

The Cardinals pulled within 7-4 in the sixth on Yadier Molina's second RBI double of the game. Molina, who added a run-scoring single in the eighth, finished with three hits and three RBIs.

Detroit scored three in the eighth to make it 10-5 on RBI singles by Marcus Thames and Inge and a sacrifice fly by Monroe.

The Tigers took a 3-0 lead on Granderson's solo homer in the first and a two-run shot by Inge in the second, but the Cardinals tied the game with three runs in the fourth.

Scott Rolen's double scored Pujols with the first run of the inning, former Tiger Juan Encarnacion added a sacrifice fly and Molina had his first run-scoring double.

I guess all the fantasy teams with Pujols on their team can rejoice

[ZBoyer]

He played in yesterday's game, too. It seems like they rushed to get him back in the lineup; one has to hope he doesn't get hurt again and spend even longer out because of the quick return.

[STL FANATIC]

He played in yesterday's game, too. It seems like they rushed to get him back in the lineup; one has to hope he doesn't get hurt again and spend even longer out because of the quick return.

I have been gone a week, but I pretty well know they didn't rush him. He probably tried to rush himself back a little bit, but La Russa, Jocketty, and our trainers were not going to allow him to comeback until it was pretty clear he wouldn't reinjure the thing. That is pretty hard to gurantee, so it could happen, but they're confident he won't if they brought him back. Evidently we've struggled mightily the last week...BUT...our offense really hasn't had any problems without/because of Pujols. I'd say 90% of our losses while Pujols was out could be directly attributed to pitching, so there was no need to rush Albert back.