Associated Press

The Toronto Blue Jays expected Ricky Romero to go deep into the game. Getting a major contribution from his bat was a huge bonus.

Romero threw a four-hitter for his second career shutout and helped break it open with his first career hit as the Blue Jays whipped the St. Louis Cardinals 5-0 Sunday for a three-game sweep.

“I’m not a good hitter,” Romero said. “So it definitely feels good to help myself out in that situation.”

J.P. Arencibia homered and Yunel Escobar had two hits and an RBI for the Blue Jays, who had lost four in a row before arriving at Busch Stadium. All three starters worked at least six innings for Toronto, which climbed back to .500 and earned its first series sweep since May 13-15 at Minnesota.

Manager John Farrell said he anticipated in spring training that Romero would assume a leadership role in the rotation, and hasn’t been disappointed.

“He’s the lead guy and guys follow his example,” Farrell said. “He’s on a very good run in terms of total innings pitched but yet you look at total number of pitches thrown he’s been very efficient for the better part of two months.”

The Cardinals wound up a 3-6 homestand and have lost 12 of 15 overall. They are 1-5 since Albert Pujols was sidelined for an anticipated six weeks with a broken left wrist, and have scored three or fewer runs in four of those games.

“We’ve just got to play better, hit better, manage better, all that stuff,” manager Tony La Russa said. “When you only have one opportunity or two, you’re not doing enough offensively.”

Reinforcements are expected soon. Third baseman David Freese and utilityman Nick Punto are likely to come off the 15-day disabled list during the upcoming six-game trip starting Tuesday.

“I think any of our guys on the DL, if we can get them back it’s going to be huge,” pitcher Kyle McClellan said. “We’ve got a pretty good team on the DL.”

McClellan (6-4) gave up five runs in 5 1/3 innings. Romero got the big hit against him, a two-run single the other way, just inside the first-base line in a four-run sixth.

“It was up,” McClellan said. “It wasn’t a good pitch. I ended up throwing it thigh high.”

Romero had been 0 for 14 with nine strikeouts for his career and 0 for 4 this year before the hit that made it 4-0.

Romero (7-7) threw his first shutout since May 15, 2010, against Texas. He struck out five, walked two and kept going after taking a liner off the top of his left foot on Lance Berkman’s infield hit with one out in the ninth, throwing one warmup pitch before resuming his attack against the Cardinals.

“It was just a little stinger at the time, but now it feels as if it didn’t get hit,” Romero said. “It feels fine.”

The left-hander retired the first 10 in order before Skip Schumaker singled with one out in the fourth. The Cardinals’ lone baserunner to make it into scoring position was Andrew Brown after getting a gift double in the fifth when both center fielder Corey Patterson and left fielder Juan Rivera pulled up on a catchable ball near the warning track.

In two career starts against the Cardinals, Romero hasn’t allowed a run in 17 innings. He worked eight scoreless innings in a 1-0 loss at Toronto June 23, 2010.

“Good sinker and he keeps you off-balance with the changeup to righties and the little cutter and curveball to lefties,” said Daniel Descalso, who was 0 for 2 with a pair of groundouts and a walk. “When you run into him on a good day, he’s got shutdown stuff.”

Half of Romero’s six career complete games have come this season, and he ended up the loser in the other two. He worked at least seven innings for the ninth straight start, the longest active streak in the majors, going 5-3 with a 1.95 ERA during that stretch.

Toronto had three of its 10 hits in the sixth, plus Patterson’s RBI grounder. Berkman threw wildly to the plate from the first base, allowing runners to take an extra base.

Associated Press

Carlos Villanueva’s most important contribution may have been at the plate.

The Toronto Blue Jays’ right-hander worked six solid innings in a 6-3 victory over the sagging St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday night. He also drew a leadoff walk in the third, setting the stage for a five-run rally capped by Juan Rivera’s three-run home run.

Villanueva (5-1) is a career .078 hitter with three RBIs in 64 at-bats.

“Well, you know I’m not the best hitter, but what I try to do is make him throw as many pitches as possible,” Villanueva said. “I know when I’m out there I don’t want to go into deep counts with the pitcher, because it just gets your pitch count up.

“A couple of close pitches went my way and we had a productive inning,” he said.

Jaime Garcia (6-3) kept his home ERA at a minuscule 0.88 — best in the major leagues — because four of the runs in Toronto’s big inning were unearned due to third baseman Daniel Descalso’s two-out throwing error. But the left-hander surrendered Rivera’s sixth homer the next at-bat and walked three in the inning, including Jose Bautista intentionally to load the bases.

Rivera said Garcia got him on a flyout with a changeup in the second inning. The next time, he punished a changeup.

“That was my plan going to the plate,” Rivera said. “Any time a pitcher gets me out with one pitch, I try to look for that pitch.”

Garcia had four strikeouts and four walks, one off his season high, in seven innings.

“The last thing you want to do is walk the pitcher, especially for an American League team,” Garcia said. “Their pitchers don’t hit. What’s he going to do?”

Edwin Encarnacion homered off Ryan Franklin’s first pitch in the ninth and Aaron Hill added two hits and a walk for Toronto, which clinched the series win right after getting swept at Atlanta. Reliever Frank Francisco’s two-out throwing error in the ninth gave the Cardinals an unearned run. St. Louis had the tying run at the plate before Ryan Theriot grounded out.

Theriot and Jon Jay had two hits apiece for the Cardinals, who have lost 11 of 14 and are 1-4 minus injured Albert Pujols. Matt Holliday was ejected for arguing a called third strike with two on and none out in the eighth and the next batter, Lance Berkman, grounded into an inning-ending double play against Marc Rzepczynski.

The Cardinals lost only their second series to an AL East opponent, the other coming in a sweep at the New York Yankees in 2003.

Garcia followed the walk to Villanueva with another walk to leadoff man Yunel Escobar. Adam Lind had a sacrifice fly to tie it at 1 the at-bat before Descalso made a diving stop on J.P. Arencibia’s smash down the line but made a throw that forced Berkman to leap high above first base to snare the throw, and Berkman appeared to land on the bag about the same time as Arencibia’s foot.

“I thought it was a real bang-banger, a banger, bang-bang,” manager Tony La Russa said. “Lance thought he had him. I can’t tell.”

Rivera had been in a 2-for-12 slump and had totaled five RBIs this month before homering on a 1-0 pitch.

Cardinals Media Relations

The St. Louis Cardinals announced today the signing of University of Hawaii second baseman Kolten Wong, the team’s first overall selection in the 2011 First Year player draft.  Wong, 20, posted a career .358 batting average (245-for-684) with 47 doubles, 25 home runs and 145 RBI at Hawaii with a career slugging pct. of .563 and a .449 on-base pct.  A left-handed hitter, he also started games at catcher and centerfield during his time at Hawaii.

“Kolten will start his professional career right away and that is a benefit to both him and for the Cardinals,” said Cardinals Vice President of Scouting & Player Development, Jeff Luhnow.  “He is a special player and our fans in Quad Cities will find that out very soon.”

The Hilo, Hawaii native started 57 games as a junior this season for the Rainbows and led his team in almost every offensive category during the 2011 season.  The 5’9”, 180-pound Wong was drafted in the 16th round of the 2008 First-Year Player draft by the Minnesota Twins, but did not sign.

“I’m excited to get my professional career started,” said Wong.  “It’s always been a dream of mine to play professional baseball. Hopefully some day soon I will be playing for the Cardinals here in St. Louis.”

Wong becomes the fifth 1st round pick from the 2011 Major League Baseball draft class to have signed.  He will be assigned to the Quad Cities (A) roster, reporting there on Monday.

Associated Press

Jose Bautista’s major league-leading 23rd home run in the top of the ninth inning helped the Toronto Blue Jays snap a four-game losing streak with a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

Bautista’s one-out drive off Fernando Salas (4-2) barely cleared the wall in right field, landing just past the outstretched glove of a leaping Jon Jay and in the Cardinals’ bullpen. He has homered in the last two games after hitting only one in a 22-game stretch.

Colby Rasmus and Matt Holliday homered for the Cardinals, who have lost 10 of 13 and are 1-3 without injured Albert Pujols.

Bautista doubled and scored in the first, flied out to the warning track in left and drew an intentional walk.

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Chris Carpenter threw seven strong innings and Jon Jay and Lance Berkman homered to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 12-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday.

Carpenter (2-7) picked up his first victory since May 10. He allowed one run and five hits to end a string of seven successive starts without a win. Carpenter struck out seven and walked one.

St. Louis won for the first time since three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols fractured his left forearm on Sunday. The Cardinals managed just two runs and 11 hits during the first two games without Pujols, who is out 4 to 6 weeks.

Philadelphia starter Roy Oswalt (4-6) left after two innings due to tightness in his lower back. He gave up four runs and five hits in his shortest start since a two-inning outing in a 9-7 loss to Atlanta on September 10, 2009.

The Phillies, who were looking to sweep the three-game series, closed out a six-game road trip at 3-3.

Carpenter entered the game with the 11th-lowest run support among NL starters at 3.38 runs per game. His teammates scored three times in the second and once in the third to give him an early 5-0 cushion.

Carpenter retired 10 of the first 11 hitters. He gave up three successive singles in the sixth, including a run-scoring hit by Ryan Howard, with two outs.

Jay hit his fifth homer of the season, a 422-foot shot to right off Oswalt to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. Berkman capped off a six-run outburst in the eighth with a three-run shot, his 18th of the season.

Colby Rasmus, Skip Schumaker and rookie catcher Tony Cruz opened the second with successive singles to push the lead to 2-0. Carpenter added a sacrifice bunt before Ryan Theriot ripped a two-run single to make it 4-0.

Cruz added a run-scoring single in the sixth. He finished 2 for 3 with the first two RBIs of his career.

Matt Holliday drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the eighth off reliever Danys Baez, who gave up six runs in the inning.

Carlos Ruiz hit a two-out homer in the ninth for Philadelphia.