Apparently, the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis is both a hitter's and pitcher's park. At least for Mark Mulder.
The Cardinals' left-hander threw eight strong innings and hit his first career home run to help St. Louis beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-4 Monday in the first major league game at the $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 day began on a festive note, with Pujols and Chris Carpenter, the NL MVP and Cy Young Award winners, throwing out dual ceremonial first pitches to retired Cardinals greats Willie McGee and Bob Gibson. It stayed festive most of the day for a sellout crowd of 41,936.
Bill Hall's two-run homer in the second was the only damage off Mulder (1-0). Hall was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles for Milwaukee, which has lost two straight after a 5-0 start that put the Brewers in first place in the NL Central.
Mulder allowed seven hits in eight innings, struck out five and walked one. He also was 2-for-3 with a double on a hop off the centerfield wall and a walk — coming in he had a .119 career average in 84 at-bats.
His home run, a two-drive off Jose Capellan in the seventh, put the Cardinals ahead 6-2.
Mulder also started the final home opener at the old Busch Stadium last year in addition to pitching the final game at the 40-year-old park last fall in a Game 6 NLCS loss to the Houston Astros.
DODGERS 8, PIRATES 3: At Pittsburgh, Jason Repko homered and tripled to drive in four runs in the first two innings and the Dodgers roughed up the new team of Jim Tracy, who left Los Angeles after last season and was hired to manage Pittsburgh. Odalis Perez (1-0) limited the already-slumping Pirates to one run and five hits over 5 1/3 innings.
ASTROS 5, NATIONALS 4: At Houston, Eric Bruntlett hit a sacrifice fly off Mike Stanton (0-1) that scored Craig Biggio in the 12th inning. After pinch-hitter Daryle Ward hit a solo homer off Brad Lidge in the 10th, Morgan Ensberg homered off Chad Cordero in the bottom half.
BRAVES 5, PHILLIES 3: At Atlanta, Marcus Giles hit a tiebreaking homer in the seventh inning and the Braves finally got a solid effort from a starting pitcher, winning their home opener 5-3 over Philadelphia.
The Braves, coming off a 3-4 West Coast trip to start the season, made their Turner Field debut before a sellout crowd of 47,332 that included former President Carter.