Kyle Lohse brought his best for the team that failed to re-sign him over the winter.

Lohse pitched a season-high eight innings of four-hit ball and Adam Kennedy hit a two-run home run, helping the St. Louis Cardinals rebound from their worst loss at 3-year-old Busch Stadium with a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

“Obviously, they felt they didn’t need me bad enough,” Lohse said. “I didn’t mind going out there and beating them today, I’ll tell you that.”

Lohse (8-2) was hurt only by Pat Burrell’s two-run homer in the fourth in an outing that took pressure off a bullpen that pitched 5 2-3 innings in a 20-2 loss on Friday night.

The Cardinals activated closer Jason Isringhausen and recalled right-hander Anthony Reyes earlier in the day due to the arms shortage, but Lohse minimized concerns when he entered the eighth with a 101-pitch count and then worked a 1-2-3 inning against the top of the Phillies’ order.

“They wanted me to give them as much as I could,” Lohse said. “I wanted to give them everything I could.”

Stand-in closer Ryan Franklin needed four pitches to get three outs for his ninth save in 12 chances. Right fielder Ryan Ludwick made a diving catch to rob Geoff Jenkins to end the game and raised his glove in triumph to sell the play, although replays appeared to indicate he had trapped the ball.

“Going back on tape it looks like it might have hit the ground first,” Ludwick said. “It happened so fast, I just pulled it up.”

After watching a replay, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel maintained that the call had been blown.

“That didn’t lose the game for us,” Manuel said. “But at the same time, we’d still be hitting with a man on first base. Who knows, somebody might pop one.”

Franklin was among the relievers who got smacked around Friday night, allowing two runs and four hits in one-third of an inning. This time: “Short and sweet.”

Losing pitcher Adam Eaton (2-4) got two of the four hits off Lohse. Eaton allowed three runs and nine hits in 6 2-3 innings.

“I’m happy I went deep into the game,” Eaton said. “But at the same time, I caused some problems for myself.”

The Cardinals beat the Phillies for only the third time in 11 meetings at 3-year-old Busch Stadium. Philadelphia had been averaging 7.5 runs in its previous 22 games against St. Louis.

The Phillies offered Lohse a three-year contract for around $21 million after he helped them make the playoffs last fall but he held out for a better deal before settling for a one-year, $4.25 million free agent deal with the Cardinals in mid-March. He won his fifth straight start and benefited from outstanding plays from shortstop Cesar Izturis, Kennedy at second and third baseman Troy Glaus.

Lohse said he didn’t have much time to consider the Phillies’ offer, saying it was gone “about a week” later, and had no other offers until signing with the Cardinals. Manuel said Lohse’s familiarity with the Phillies had to help.

“He knew how to pitch us,” Manuel said. “He had a game plan and he stayed with it. We didn’t have many chances, and the chances we had we didn’t do much with.”

Izturis robbed Pedro Feliz on a hard grounder in the hole in the fourth, Kennedy made a nice play on Ryan Howard’s smash up the middle to start the sixth and Glaus made a great play on Burrell’s shot down the line in the next at-bat.

Skip Schumaker and Kennedy, the top two hitters in the order, combined for four hits and scored three runs. Kennedy hit his first homer of the season off Eaton (2-4) after Schumaker’s leadoff single in the first, and Ryan Ludwick’s two-out RBI hit made it 3-0 in the third.

Kennedy bunted foul for the first strike before connecting on a 1-2 pitch.

“When you don’t hit many you don’t really ever know,” Kennedy said. “You just kind of run it out and see what happens, but I knew I hit it OK.”

Burrell hit his 18th homer, and second in two days, in the fourth after Howard’s leadoff single. Lohse retired 12 of the next 13 batters.

It’s a good thing for the St. Louis Cardinals, giving up 20 runs, does not count as anything more than a loss in the W/L Standings. Without All Star first basemen, and with a horrible pitching outing by Todd Wellemeyer the Cardinals fell on Friday night 20-2.

The Phillies scored 3 in the first, 1 in the second, 9 runs in the fourth, 1 in the fifth, 3 in the sixth, and 3 more in the eighth, while the Cardinals picked up a tally in both the third and the sixth inning.

In the first inning after two men were retired Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Pat Burrell hit back to back to back homeruns, to put the Phillies up 3-0 early. Utley ended up 2-3 on the day, and Howard finished 3-5 with 2 homeruns, and 5 rbi’s. Pitcher Kyle Kendrick also got in on the action, getting two basehits, both in the fourth inning.

For the Cardinals, Skip Schumaker had three hits, and Troy Glaus had two, and they were the only two to drive in runs for the Cardinals.

Kendrick went 7 innings, gave up 8 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, walking one and striking out one.

Wellemeyer only went 3.1 innings, giving up 8 hits, 8 runs, all earned, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and gave up 3 homeruns to drop to 7-2 on the season.

Utility man Aaron Miles pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for the Cardinals.

With Albert Pujols on the disabled list, possibly until the All Star Break, the St. Louis Cardinals are going to have to get other production from the rest of their roster. The Cardinals begin a three game series with the very tough Philadelphia Phillies, starting at 7:10 tonight. The Cardinals and Phillies both come in with matching 40-28 records, and both would be playing baseball in the postseason if the season were to end today.

The Phillies currently lead the Florida Marlins by three games in the NL East, while the Cardinals trail the Chicago Cubs by 3.5 games, but lead the Marlins by three in the wildcard chase, and the Brewers by four.

Obviously, we won’t be giving you Albert’s career numbers against any of the Phillies pitchers, but here are the matchups set for this weekend:

Friday: Kyle Kendrick 5-2, 4.87 v. Todd Wellemeyer 7-1, 2.92

Saturday: Adam Eaton 2-3, 4.62 v. Kyle Lohse 7-2, 3.92

Sunday: Brett Myers 3-8, 5.34 v. Mitchell Boggs 1-0, 3.86

I like the Cardinals matchups. Wellemeyer skipped his last start, but has been unreal to start this season. Lohse has pitched well all year, as well, and Boggs had a good first outing. Kendrick, Eaton and Myers are not slouches for the Phillies, so this should be a fun series. Rollins, Utley, Howard and Burrell scare me.

GO CARDINALS!

And get well soon Albert!