Myers, Astros quiet Cards' bats

HOUSTON -- Brett Myers has lasted at least six innings in each of his starts this season.

He had much bigger goals Saturday night.

Myers added another quality start to his strong season, pitching eight crisp innings to help the Houston Astros beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1.

Myers (6-6) gave up one run and five hits, struck out five and walked none. He extended his club record of starts of six innings or more to begin the season to 18 and is the only pitcher in the majors to achieve the mark in every start since the season began.

"You don't get many opportunities to throw complete games so you want to take them when you can get them," he said. "I should have just ran out there [in the ninth] and embarrassed everybody. That would have been funny."

Pedro Feliz hit a two-run single in Houston's three-run first and Jeff Keppinger went deep for the Astros.

Jeff Suppan (0-5) allowed four runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings for St. Louis.

Keppinger's one-out double helped set up Houston's big first inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, Feliz singled to left, and Humberto Quintero drove in Hunter Pence with a base hit to make it 3-0.

Myers was happy his team got him an early lead.

"It definitely relaxes you a little bit, especially with the lineup that they have over there with [Albert] Pujols and [Matt] Holliday and the other guys they have to make things happen for them to score runs," he said. "So it's always good to be able to go out there and have a little cushion so you can get in a rhythm and start pitching."

Keppinger connected in the fifth, hitting a one-out drive to left to give Houston a 4-1 lead. It was Keppinger's third homer of the season.

That was enough for Myers, who retired nine of his last 10 batters. Matt Lindstrom issued two walks in the ninth before striking out rookie Jon Jay for his 21st save in 25 opportunities.

Albert Pujols and Jay both had two hits for St. Louis. Jay extended his hitting streak to a National League-best 10 games.

Pujols tripled and scored on Matt Holliday's groundout in the fourth. It was the first triple for Pujols since last July and the 15th of his career.

"We got one run, but we needed to do more, even though Myers pitched well," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He made a lot of good pitches, but we have a lot of good hitters. You give him credit, no doubt about it."