Baseball: Pujols hits three home runs to give Cardinals 2-1 lead

St. Louis Cardinals' Albert Pujols hits a solo home run during the ninth inning of Game 3. Photo / AP

Albert Pujols joined Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players to hit three home runs in a World Series game as the St. Louis Cardinals routed the Texas Rangers 16-7 on Saturday to take a 2-1 Series lead.

Pujols also matched a World Series record with six RBIs in one game.

Thirty-six of 54 teams that won Game 3 to take a 2-1 Series lead have gone on to take the title, including 10 of the last 11.

Pujols hit a long three-run homer that helped the Cardinals open a 12-6 lead after six innings. He added a two-run shot in the seventh and a solo one in the ninth.

Following two relatively routine games during a split in St. Louis, the teams played a messy Texas shootout that saw the fourth and fifth innings alone drag on for 1 hour, 22 minutes and the game itself last more than four hours.

After taking a 5-0 lead, St. Louis allowed Texas to close to 5-3 in the bottom half of the fourth. St. Louis then opened an 8-3 lead in the fifth, but the Rangers closed to 8-6 in the bottom of the inning and had the bases loaded when Ian Kinsler hit an inning-ending popup.

Pujols followed in the sixth with a 423-foot drive off Alexi Ogando that hit the wall above the restaurant windows in left field, and Yadier Molina added a sacrifice fly.

Josh Hamilton, the reigning American League Most Valuable Player, went 1 for 4 and dropped to 1 for 11 in the Series, although he stopped an 0-for-18 Series streak dating to last year with a fifth-inning single.

Hamilton, who said before the game his groin injury may be a sports hernia, is homerless in 53 at-bats during this year's postseason.

Former President and former Rangers owner George W. Bush sat in the front row next to the Texas dugout with Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan and former First Lady Laura Bush.

A ninth-inning rally Thursday gave Texas a 2-1 win and a split in St. Louis. That avoided a repeat of last year, when the Rangers came home after losing the opening two games in San Francisco.

In Game 4 on Sunday night, Derek Holland pitches for the Rangers and Edwin Jackson starts for the Cardinals.

- AP