ST. LOUIS — Arizona starter Jon Garland had Albert Pujols right where he wanted him last night, leading off two innings with no one to drive in.

But Pujols still managed to do all the damage he could and his two solo homers were enough to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-1 victory over the Diamondbacks.

The multi home run game was the eighth for Pujols, who leads the majors with 34 homers and 89 RBIs. He has 31 multi-home run games in his career.

"I had him in the situation that I wanted every time," Garland said. "Nobody on, leading off innings and he caught me. What are you going to do?"

Pujols spent Wednesday and Thursday resting after being the face of the All-Star Game earlier in the week and he was ready to get back to work.

"I felt good," Pujols said. "Obviously, a couple of days off, you can't go wrong. But you can't think about that; your main focus is to make sure you're ready to go."

Chris Carpenter (8-3) blanked the Diamondbacks over eight innings.

"Early on, I left some balls in the middle of the plate that they hit," Carpenter said. "But I felt like I got better."

Pujols, who struck out in his first at-bat, led off the fourth against Garland (5-9) by hitting a pitch 386 feet into the Cardinals' bullpen in right.

When Pujols came up to lead off the sixth, Garland appeared like he would pitch around him, with his first three pitches out of the strike zone. But Garland threw his next one over the plate and Pujols swatted it 435 feet to left field.