Pete Kozma picked a big spot for his first major league home run.

Kozma had two hits and drove in two runs to help Kyle Lohse and the short-handed St. Louis Cardinals win for the sixth time in seven games, holding their lead in the NL wild-card race with a 6-3 win Sunday over the Chicago Cubs.

Minus All-Stars Yadier Molina and Carlos Beltran from the starting lineup, the Cardinals stayed 2 1/2 games ahead of Milwaukee for the second wild-card spot.

Kozma homered in the sixth inning to give his team a 4-2 lead, and added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in St. Louis’ two-run eighth.

”Every game means something,” Kozma said. ”I feel pretty good getting in there every day and working out the jitters.”

A quick-thinking Cardinals fan, Jeff Barabasz, caught the ball and immediately sat on it. He gave a decoy ball to his 13-year-old son, Matthew, who threw it back onto the field to appease the Wrigley Field faithful.

They met Kozma after the game to return the real home run ball, posing for pictures with the 24-year-old.

”That was pretty cool,” Kozma said. ”It’s also big to help your team out in a big spot.”

Kozma was called up when shortstop Rafael Furcal went down with a strained right elbow at the end of August and has impressed manager Mike Matheny, earning regular playing time.

”I’ve been impressed with the way he moves around shortstop, and he’s taken good at-bats for us,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”He’s had tough at-bats. That eight-hole is not an easy place to be. He’s done a nice job with the opportunities he’s had.”

Closer Jason Motte also kept a souvenir from the game after recording his 40th save.

Motte joins Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith and Jason Isringhausen as the only closers in Cardinals history to post a 40-save season.

Motte has six saves in the team’s last seven games.

”If I’m out there converting saves, that means we’re winning,” Motte said. ”That’s what it’s about, it’s about winning.”

Lohse (16-3) made his team-leading 32nd start, giving up three runs and five hits in six innings.

Molina did not play for the defending World Series champions because of lower back spasms, having hurt himself while getting out of the way of a pitch Saturday. The catcher was feeling better, manager Mike Matheny said, still had some discomfort.

Beltran did not start because of what Matheny believed to be food poisoning. The outfielder had a pinch-hit RBI single during a two-run eighth.

He didn’t join the team in the dugout until the fifth inning, and went to the plate without any warm-up swings.

Allen Craig got three hits and drove in two runs for St. Louis.

”The more I watch him, the more I’m impressed,” Matheny said of Craig. ”Everything about him.”

Cubs starter Justin Germano (2-9) worked 5 2-3 innings, giving up four earned runs and 10 hits.

Craig hit a two-run double with two outs in the third and David Freese had an RBI single. St. Louis would have had the bases loaded for Craig, but a baserunning mistake found both Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday on third base and Carpenter was tagged out.

Alfonso Soriano hit his 31st homer for the Cubs, giving him a career-high 105 RBIs.

”He just keeps going, he’s had to play a lot of games this year with very few days off,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. ”He’s done one heck of a job — left field, at the plate and everything about this season has been one of his best.”

Chicago got two runs back in the fourth on Welington Castillo’s RBI double and a wild pitch.

— Associated Press —

It was all going so well for St. Louis. Chris Carpenter had a solid 2012 debut and Pete Kozma swiped home for the go-ahead run, putting the Cardinals in position to extend their timely winning streak.

Then it all fell apart in a hurry.

Darwin Barney connected for a tying two-run homer off Fernando Salas with two out in the ninth inning and David DeJesus hit a game-ending single in the 11th to lift the Chicago Cubs to a 5-4 victory on Friday.

DeJesus came to the plate with two out and lined an 0-2 pitch from Joe Kelly (5-6) into right field to score pinch-runner Brett Jackson.

Alberto Cabrera (1-1) struck out two in a perfect 11th to earn his first career victory.

The Cardinals had won four in a row and entered Friday with a 2 1/2-game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers for the second NL wild card.

”We got to a two-run lead with two strikes in the ninth, but wouldn’t finish it off,” manager Mike Matheny said.

Carpenter threw five effective innings and was in line for the win until Barney drove a 1-2 pitch from Salas into the left-field bleachers. Salas allowed a single to DeJesus with two outs and nobody on after getting two strikes on him, too.

”I made the pitches I wanted to make,” Salas said. ”It was a fastball in to DeJesus and a soft hit and then Barney was bad luck. He made good contact.”

The Cardinals’ regular closer, Jason Motte, was unavailable after pitching three days in a row and four out of the last five.

”He’s been very, very good for us lately and he’s been in that situation before so it’s a good fit,” Matheny said of Salas. ”You can look at a pitch now and say it should have been somewhere else, but it’s easy to do now.”

Carpenter threw 77 pitches, with a light rain falling throughout the game. The 37-year-old allowed two runs and five hits, struck out two and walked one.

”My stuff wasn’t as sharp as I’d like and it wasn’t as sharp as it’s been in the simulated games,” Carpenter said. ”But I tried to get as many outs as I could and give us a chance. It was fun to get back out there. Hopefully my stuff will get better and sharper as I get out there more often.”

Carpenter went 4-0 in the 2011 postseason, but hadn’t pitched since winning Game 7 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers. He had surgery July 19 to relieve a nerve ailment that caused numbness up and down the right side of his body.

”It was good to have him back out there and obviously he did exactly what we thought he’d do,” Matheny said. ”He competed and made some good pitches and gave us a chance to win.”

Adding his experienced arm to the rotation boosts the Cardinals’ playoff push. The Brewers open a weekend series Friday night against the Washington Nationals, who clinched a playoff berth Thursday.

Carpenter held Chicago scoreless through the first two innings, allowing three baserunners, but the Cubs jumped on him in a two-run third inning.

DeJesus led off the third with a triple and Barney followed with an RBI single. Two batters later, Alfonso Soriano doubled to the left-field corner to tie it at 2.

St. Louis regained the lead in the fourth on a botched suicide squeeze play. Kozma led off with a triple, and was credited with stealing home when catcher Welington Castillo was unable to handle a high-and-tight pitch that Daniel Descalso offered at but could not get down.

It was the Cardinals’ first straight steal of home since Kerry Robinson in 2002.

Yadier Molina’s two-out single got St. Louis on the board in the first inning, and Allen Craig added a sacrifice fly in the third. Matt Holliday reached four times for the Cardinals.

Descalso tacked on an RBI double in the eighth, driving in Matt Carpenter.

Cubs starter Chris Volstad allowed three runs and six hits in five innings.

— Associated Press —