Cardinals-Cubs: Troy Glaus Breaks 0-30 Slump in Big Way With 2 Home Runs

For someone as talented as St. Louis Cardinals' third baseman Troy Glaus to go hitless in 30 at-bats against the arch rival Chicago Cubs, one had to assume there would be an inevitable end to this drought.

The slump ended with one swing of the bat in the fourth inning, as Glaus parked a Carlos Zambrano fastball in the seats at Wrigley Field.

The Cardinals had already gone deep twice in the previous inning, and Glaus' two-run shot made the score 5-2.

However, Glaus was only halfway done with his monster day. With Ryan Ludwick and Felipe Lopez on board, Glaus launched another Zambrano offering into the bleachers to give the Cardinals a seven-run advantage.

With Zambrano on the hill for the Cubbies, runs seemed to be at a premium coming into the game, but Big Z allowed 9 runs over 4.1 innings of work.

His counterpart, Todd Wellemeyer, pitched 6.2 innings of six-hit baseball to capture his ninth win of the season against just four losses.

Glaus wasn't the only Cardinal who had a big offensive day. Albert Pujols went 2-for-4 with a home run, and Skip Schumaker set the table early with a double and home run, and ended the game 2-for-5.

Every win is particularly large for the Cardinals these days with just under a third of the season remaining. The Redbirds now trail the Cubbies by six games in the NL Central, in addition to being just 1.5 games out of the NL Wild Card race.

Another bright spot for the 'Birds was the performance of the much-maligned bullpen. Granted, there was a nine-run lead, the bullpen pitched 2.2 innings of scoreless work to secure the team's 65th win of the year.

The rubber game tomorrow features heavyweights Chris Carpenter and Ryan Dempster.