Glaus' two-run double in eighth powers Cards past Astros

HOUSTON (AP) -- Anthony Reyes was terrible as a starter last season.

His career as a long reliever is off to a much better start.

Reyes pitched three scoreless innings of one-hit ball and Troy Glaus hit a two-run double in the eighth inning to propel the St. Louis Cardinals to a 5-3 win over the Houston Astros on Tuesday night.

Reyes, 2-14 with a 6.04 ERA as a starter last season, struck out 13 in 19 innings this spring to nab a bullpen spot. Tuesday's performance got him halfway to last year's win total.

"Troy's hit was huge, but we don't have a chance without Anthony's pitching," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He was really pumping it. That's the way he's looked before. He was really going after those guys. It was a clutch job by him he deserves something good like a 'W.'"

The 26-year-old has struggled with control in the past, but seems to have improved this season.

"My mechanics are coming back," said Reyes (1-0), who struck out one. "In spring training I was OK, but I wasn't quite there. I just needed to remember what I used to do. I've tweaked a couple of things and I'm feeling better and better."

Jason Isringhausen worked a perfect ninth for his fourth save.

Glaus' hit, off Geoff Geary (0-1), bounced off the lower portion of the bullpen wall in right-center field and scored Chris Duncan and Albert Pujols.

Duncan scored on a single by Adam Kennedy in the sixth inning to tie it at 3. The Cardinals had a chance to take the lead later in the inning but Mark Loretta's throw home beat Rick Ankiel there to end the inning.

Houston's Miguel Tejada had a two-run double in the third to make it 2-all. Lance Berkman scored easily, but Carlos Lee slid feet first and knocked down catcher Jason LaRue to get home safely.

Tejada made it 3-2 when he scored on a wild pitch later in the inning.

Brad Thompson's suicide squeeze in the second inning scored Ankiel and Skip Schumaker tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly in the third to make it 2-0.

Schumaker broke out of an 0-for-16 slump with that hit.

"I haven't been doing my job lately," he said. "Getting on base is what I'm supposed to do. It was frustrating because I was seeing the ball good, I just wasn't hitting it."

Thompson lasted four innings, allowing five hit and three runs with five strikeouts and two walks.

Astros starter Shawn Chacon allowed four hits and three runs. He struck out two and walked four in six innings.

"I could have been a lot better and I will be a lot better," Chacon said.

Rule 5 draftee Wesley Wright struck out two in a perfect seventh for Houston.

"It was a pretty good night pitching for us, we just couldn't get a big hit," Astros manager Cecil Cooper said.

Houston had just two hits after the fourth inning, a triple by Hunter Pence in the seventh and a double by Geoff Blum in the eighth both coming with two outs.

Game notes
Astros 2B Kaz Matsui, on the disabled list after surgery to repair an anal fissure, was 1-for-3 with a double in a rehab assignment with Double-A Corpus Christi on Tuesday. He could return to Houston's lineup as soon as Sunday. ... Cardinals RHP Joel Pineiro, on the disabled list with a right shoulder strain, allowed six hits and two runs with five strikeouts in six innings of a rehab start for Triple-A Memphis Tuesday.