The first place Cards: It's early. Dream big.

The great ones always respond, don't they?

Albert Pujols entered Wednesday night's contest against the Houston Astros with no home runs and exactly one RBI. But that all changed in a hurry. A three-for-four performance that included an RBI single and two solo home runs helped vault the Redbirds to a 6-4 victory and a 7-2 record.

Thank you, Brandon Backe.

The Astros pitcher took exception to Pujols slide into home plate the previous night and made no secret of that fact during a heated pre-game conversation.

While Backe ran his mouth before the game, the Cardinals first baseman let his bat do his talking during the contest. The result was exactly what St. Louis wanted - a game victory, a third consecutive series victory and a first place standing in the National League's Central Division.

Getting beyond the Pujols/Backe theatrics, there are plenty of other things in the early going to get fired up about.

Skip Schumaker busted out of an early season slump with three hits and a walk, scoring twice. Rick Ankiel hit two more hits and two more RBI - he's now hitting .314 on the season.

But the biggest difference over the last two nights of this series was the performance of the bullpen. After Kyle McCellan gave up a walk-off home to Miguel Tejada in the series opener, the Cards bullpen pitched 8 1/3 innings over the next two nights - and didn't give up a single earned run.

In the 7^th, 8^th and 9^th innings of the last two games, St. Louis outscored Houston 4-1. The only run the Astros scored came after an error by pitcher Randy Flores.

The Astros were busted over some apparent gamesmanship in the series, as well.

From today's Post-Dispatch:

"The start of the sixth inning was delayed when umpires wanted Houston to switch a sign behind home plate from being white when the Cardinals were in the field and black when the Astros were in the field."

Nice try, guys. See you in St. Louis at the end of the month. Can't wait to see Backe face Pujols.

Here's where it gets interesting. Seven of the next 10 games are against the San Francisco Giants. The other three are against the Milwaukee Brewers.

San Francisco has some talented young pitchers but just a dreadful everyday lineup. The Giants are 3-6 on the season. Here are the scores from their three wins:

• 2-1
• 3-2
• 1-0

It's not exactly dreaming to think if the Cardinals can put together any type of offense, they can go 5-2 against the Giants. Take 2 of 3 from Milwaukee at Busch Stadium and what are you looking at? How about a 14-5 start to the season?

It's early. Dream big.

Stay tuned.