TORONTO–The St. Louis Cardinals are off Thursday.

Which leaves time to savor just how special Wednesday night’s win against Toronto was.

Without Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, the Cards were in desperate straights.

Who are you going to call?

How about the old Cards.

When the St. Louis Cardinals needed a pick me up, two veteran war horses stepped up in Canada.

Albert Pujols and Adam Wainwright reached back into yesteryear on Wednesday and delivered.

St. Louis skipper Oli Marmol inserted 42-year old Albert Pujols into the cleanup spot in the lineup.

He went 3 for 4 with three RBI and a massive blast to the second deck in centerfield.

“If you look at my at bats. The balls that I put in play, sometimes they find holes and sometimes they don’t. Now I am able to put on the same swing, get some hits, and contribute to this ballclub,” said Pujols.

“He’s been working at it. The last several weeks we’ve seen much better swings. He’s not chasing. He’s staying in the zone. He’s been marking hard contact. It’s been fun to watch,” said Marmol.

The home run gave the Cardinals a 6-1 lead and put the game out of reach.

It was Pujols’ 686th home run of his career, leaving him 14 shy of the 700 plateau.

Pujols also becomes the oldest player to hit a home run at Rogers Centre.

With his three hits pujols also passes Rogers Hornsby and is fourth on the all-time Cardinals hit list.

The Toronto fans gave him a standing ovation.

Pujols:”It meant a lot. At the end of the day, that’s who you play for, these guys, the fans. We have the best fans in baseball, the Cardinals fans. They come to support us whether we’re at home or on the road.”

“He’s my man. It’s fun to watch him. And it was a tank bomb that he hit too. He still has some pop,” said Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright.

Waino still has some pop in his right arm as well.

The 40-year old was pitching in Toronto for the first time in a dozen years.

And he mesmerized the Blue Jays hitters.

Waino went seven innings, giving up one run with eight strikeouts.

“He doesn’t have the velocity that he used to have. But I think that he’s so smart. He knows how to pitch. And he doesn’t give in,” said Pujols.

And soaking it all in, the young kids on the team like rookie Nolan Gorman.

Gorman hit his tenth homer of the season in the fifth, but that was overshadowed by Pujol’s monster swat.

“They’ve been through a lot in their careers. So they have a lot of experience and information to share with us younger guys. And they pass it along,” said Gorman.