The Phillies looked lost without Jimmy Rollins, while the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols found his home run stroke.

At New York, last year’s NL East champions played a painfully sloppy game minus their MVP shortstop, and Mike Pelfrey gave the Mets’ injury-riddled pitching staff an encouraging boost in the Mets’ 8-2 victory over Philadelphia on Wednesday night.

Rollins sat out with a sprained left ankle, missing his first game since July 30, 2006, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. His replacement, Eric Bruntlett, made two errors, and second baseman Chase Utley and catcher Carlos Ruiz also committed costly errors.

“We practice this stuff all the time,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “If you catch ’em in practice, you have to catch ’em in the game. You just have to catch the ball.”

Pujols ended the longest home run drought to start the year in his career, hitting two in his ninth game to help St. Louis beat the Astros 6-4 at Houston.

Pujols had a heated, pregame exchange with Houston’s Brandon Backe, but said it didn’t rile him and play a role in him going deep twice.

“No matter who gets me mad or doesn’t get me mad, I’m going to go out there and play the game the right way every time,” he said.

The exchange between Pujols and Backe lasted a few minutes. It involved yelling and ended with Astros manager Cecil Cooper putting his arm across Backe and guiding him away from Pujols. It apparently was over Pujols sliding into Astros catcher J.R. Towles in the eighth inning of the Cardinals’ win over the Astros on Tuesday, an event Pujols had already apologized to Towles for.

Pujols also had an RBI single and Rick Ankiel added two RBIs.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa scoffed at the notion the incident had anything to do with his play.

“How does that explain him hitting .300 every year?” La Russa said. “He plays with an edge all the time. He’s a great player. He’s a fierce competitor. You think there’s incidents before every game?”

Pujols’ previous longest season-opening drought was five games, last season. He actually homered in the Cardinals’ first try at their opener, but it was called in the third inning because of rain and the stats were erased.

He said the key Wednesday was a video session earlier in the day.

“I watched a couple of videos and I made some adjustments at the plate because of some things that I saw the last couple of games,” he said. “I knew what I was doing wrong and it’s a good thing that I picked it up early and I felt good out there and had success today. Obviously it helped me out.”

Meanwhile, the Mets ended a nine-game losing streak to Philadelphia, taking advantage of the four errors that led to six unearned runs. Bruntlett booted two grounders in a six-run third — after Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick walked six batters in the first two innings.

“It’s the first start. That’s not how you want it to go, that’s for sure,” Bruntlett said.

Handed a comfortable lead, Pelfrey (1-0) tossed five effective innings in his first start of the year to help the Mets bounce back after losing their home opener to Philadelphia on Tuesday.

The Phillies won the final eight meetings between these rivals in 2007, a big reason they were able to rally past the fading Mets to win the division title.

“We never felt there was any dominance against us,” New York manager Willie Randolph said. “There’s nothing in our heads as a team that they have a better team than us or that they have our number.”

Angel Pagan hit a two-run double for the Mets, who stopped a three-game skid. Damion Easley, starting at second base for ailing Luis Castillo, put New York ahead 2-1 with an RBI single off Kendrick (1-1) in the third.

“In that inning where they scored the six runs, we just fell apart,” Manuel said.

Rollins left Tuesday’s game in the eighth inning after tweaking his ankle while scrambling back to second base on a pickoff play.

The 2007 NL MVP tested his ankle during batting practice Wednesday, but was removed from the lineup about an hour before the first pitch. X-rays were negative, and Rollins said he didn’t expect the soreness in his ankle to linger long.

Diamondbacks 4, Dodgers 3

At Phoenix, Eric Byrnes hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the seventh inning off Hiroki Kuroda, and Arizona stretched its winning streak to six.

Marlins 10, Nationals 4

At Washington, Mike Jacobs hit two homers, including one that capped a seven-run inning, to back Scott Olsen’s solid pitching and help Florida improve to 5-3 overall, best in the NL East.

Rockies 12, Braves 6

At Denver, Yorvit Torrealba hit a three-run home run to cap off a six-run third inning and Colorado put up its highest run total of the young season and won its third straight.

Cubs 6, Pirates 4, 15 innings

At Pittsburgh, Felix Pie’s two-run single in the 15th allowed Chicago to outlast Pittsburgh in the second extra-inning game in a row between the teams.

Reds 12, Brewers 4

At Milwaukee, Adam Dunn and Corey Patterson each hit two-run homers, Brandon Phillips scored twice off a pair of heady base-running plays and Cincinnati scored 10 straight runs in a victory over the Brewers.

Giants 1, Padres 0

At San Francisco, Daniel Ortmeier hit a two-out, RBI double in the ninth off San Diego’s Heath Bell and San Francisco won consecutive games for the first time this season.