Anthony Rizzo checked off another milestone as he continues to live up to the hype.

Rizzo hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning and lifted the Chicago Cubs over the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 on Sunday.

Starlin Castro led off the inning with a single against Trevor Rosenthal (0-1), and Rizzo followed with his seventh homer — and first game-ender.

“This is the best,” an elated Rizzo said. “This is something I’ve always dreamed of doing since I was a little kid. I’ve never done it before. Not in the minors, not in little league, not ever.

“This is awesome.”

James Russell (5-0) worked an inning for the win. The Cubs are 12-3 in their last 15 home games, and 17-10 since Rizzo was called up in June.

The 22-year-old slugger didn’t remember running around the bases or getting mobbed by teammates at the plate. He maintained his presence of mind leading up to the big hit.

“Later innings, guys press a little harder. I see a lot of veteran hitters throughout baseball always just relaxed at the plate, taking pitches and not being too aggressive,” Rizzo said. “That’s something I took into this at-bat.

“I’m always a little overanxious in situations like that, and took a clean swing and let the rest take care of itself.”

A struggling Carlos Beltran homered off Shawn Camp with one out in the St. Louis eighth, tying it at 2. The opposite-field solo shot was his 23rd homer, but just his third in July. The All-Star is hitting .188 this month.

Cubs starter Paul Maholm allowed one run and four hits over 6 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out five.

Maholm exited with the bases loaded in the seventh, and Manny Corpas retired Allen Craig on a fly ball to end the threat.

Maholm has allowed one run or fewer in six straight starts, becoming the first lefty in modern Cubs history to do so. He had won the previous five outings.

“He is arguably the best pitcher in the last month in all of baseball,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “That’s the best lineup in the National League and by far the best right-handed hitting lineup in the National League, too.

“He did one heck of a job against the best.”

Even with trade rumors flying around, the rebuilding Cubs have kept on winning.

“There’s a reason I signed here. I’ve always enjoyed playing here throughout my career,” Maholm said. “They gave me a chance to come in and prove that I was healthy, and I am. Hopefully we can turn this into a long-term thing. We’ll see how everything unfolds and go from there.”

Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright gave up two runs in six innings. He wasn’t fooling anybody early, allowing six of the first nine batters to reach base.

David DeJesus tripled in the first and scored on Castro’s groundout. Darwin Barney doubled in the second and scored on an error in the second.

Barney had two doubles and a single.

Wainwright settled down to retire 12 of his final 14 batters.

“No fastball control whatsoever. Luckily, I had a good breaking ball and a good cutter going,” Wainwright said. “Early on we had to make some adjustments on how we were going to attack guys and try to figure out a way to make it work.”

Beltran’s homer got Wainwright off the hook for what could have been his first loss in 13 career appearances at Wrigley Field. Wainwright is 5-0 at the ballpark, including his 20th win in 2010 when he finished second in the NL Cy Young voting.

The Cardinals threatened several times but were largely unable to get the big hit, leaving 10 men on base.

“(Maholm) kept us off balance,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “He did a nice job of pitching, mixed up everything — used both sides of the plate, up and down. We couldn’t get anything going.”

Despite a throwing error that allowed Barney to score in the second, shortstop Daniel Descalso made several exceptional defensive plays, including a dazzling diving stab and throw in the third to rob Rizzo of a hit.

— Associated Press —

 Reed Johnson saw only one pitch in the game, and that was all he needed to have a big impact with a little hit.

Pinch hitting in the seventh inning, Johnson drove in the go-ahead with a bunt single and the Chicago Cubs got past St. Louis 3-2 on Saturday, ending the Cardinals’ four-game winning streak.

Johnson caught the Cardinals by surprise when he squared up on the first pitch with runners on first and third and two outs. Johnson’s bunt fell perfectly between reliever Brian Fuentes and third baseman Matt Carpenter, allowing pinch-runner Tony Campana to score.

“That’s a part of my game,” Johnson said. “If there is an RBI out there (and if) they’re going to give me that bunt at third, I’m going to take advantage of that every time.”

The Cubs snapped a five-game skid against St. Louis and have won nine of their past 11 at Wrigley Field. One day after the Cardinals homered in each of the first five innings in a 9-6 win over the Cubs, Chicago evened the series on a hit that traveled about 40 feet.

“That was all on his own,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “Reed is one of them baseball players that has those things in his toolbox.

“He’s just an ultimate baseball player that you love having around,” he said.

James Russell (3-0) earned the win in relief.

Carlos Marmol pitched the ninth for his 13th save in 15 chances. He struck out Skip Schumaker and got John Jay on a groundout with pinch-runner Tyler Greene on second to end the type of game the Cubs struggled to win earlier this season.

“The back of that bullpen has been pretty good,” Sveum said. “It wasn’t all that good at the beginning.”

Bryan LaHair drew a leadoff walk in the seventh from rookie Joe Kelly (1-4). Campana entered the game and stole his 26th base in 29 tries, then went to third on Geovany Soto’s single. Two outs later, Johnson bunted for a hit.

“Campana, that’s a huge stolen base against the best throwing catcher in baseball after they were really keeping him close, ” Sveum said. “That’s a big-time stolen base in a big situation.”

Kelly gave up a two-run triple to Alfonso Soriano in the first, but limited Chicago to three runs over a career-high 6 1/3 innings. He retired 14 straight batters at one point and struck out a career-best six. Kelly hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any of his nine outings this season.

“I went out there and gave up two early and in that environment it’s not too easy to come back from,” Kelly said. “I was confident in my skills and my stuff and felt good, make quality pitches down in the zone and let our team have a chance to come back.”

Both starters struggled early, then settled down — combining to strike out seven straight batters at one point.

Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija’s first seven pitches eluded the strike zone and he walked the bases full on 16 pitches. He limited St. Louis to one run in the inning on an RBI grounder by Carlos Beltran.

“Back in the day, it probably would have been a different day for me,” Samardzija said. “I’m starting to learn how to pitch in those situations, and how to get out of them with minimal damage.”

The Cubs are still 17 games under .500 for the season, but improved to 17-10 since June 25.

“I really like how we’re playing baseball right now,” Samardzija said. “It’s fun to come to the park. Everybody is excited and happy.”

— Associated Press —

The Cards almost had five of a kind.

Matt Holliday, Yadier Molina and Lance Berkman started a power show by the St. Louis Cardinals, who became the first team in eight years to hit a home run in each of the first five innings and went on to beat the Chicago Cubs 9-6 Friday.

Matt Carpenter and Allen Craig also connected off Travis Wood (4-6), whose five homers allowed matched the Cubs record.

Molina hit a two-run homer in the second, with the rest solo shots.

“The flags were blowing in, but the ball was still carrying,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “There were just a lot of hard hit balls. “Whenever you can mix five home runs in five innings, that’s pretty impressive.”

Carpenter put St. Louis ahead 7-6 when he homered on the first pitch of the fourth, and Craig homered into the left-field bleachers in the fifth. The previous team to homer in each of the first five innings was Houston against Colorado on Oct. 2, 2004, according to STATS LLC.

“All those balls were crushed,” Holliday said. “None of those were cheap home runs. If the wind was blowing out, those would have been a lot more impressive.”

Lance Lynn (13-4) tied the Mets’ R.A. Dickey and Washington’s Gio Gonzalez for the NL lead in wins despite allowing six runs and eight hits in five innings. Jason Motte completed four shutout innings for the Cardinals’ bullpen, getting three outs for his 23rd save in 27 chances as St. Louis won for the seventh time in eight games.

“The offense carried me, and the bullpen came in and did what they do,” Lynn said. “It was one of those days — a team win.”

Lynn allowed one run in 19 innings during his first three July starts, but the Cubs’ first three batters scored. Lynn also gave up three runs in the third as the Cubs rallied to tie 6-6 and ended a streak of 21 straight games in which the St. Louis starter pitched at least six innings — the club’s longest stretch since 2004.

“It was hit or miss it seems like,” said Lynn, who threw six scoreless innings in his previous start. “The time before I was able to make pitches and get out of innings with runners on. Today when they got the runner on they scored.”

Rookie Anthony Rizzo hit a two-run homer for the Cubs, his sixth in 25 games since he was brought up from Triple-A Iowa.

“It’s a good feeling to be in that kind of mindset at the plate,” Rizzo said. “I just want to stick to it right now and keep going.”

Berkman’s third-inning homer gave him 1,200 career RBIs and was just his second home run this season. Berkman has reached base in 37 straight games dating to last July 31, the longest streak in the majors, but he has missed 68 games this year because of lower body injuries.

Holliday’s solo homer in the first landed just to the left of the camera booth in center field. He added an RBI single in the seventh and singled in the ninth, leaving him with a .434 average, eight homers and 31 RBIs over his last 34 games. He’s homered five times in 12 games against the Cubs this season.

Starlin Castro had three hits for the Cubs, including an RBI single in the first and a leadoff triple to center in the third.

Rizzo added an RBI single in the third and scored on Alfonso Soriano’s double into the left-field corner, tying the game at 6-all. Rizzo’s 28 hits in July are the most among NL rookies.

Wood gave up eight runs and seven hits in five innings and has allowed 22 earned runs in 15 2/3 innings since the All-Star break.

“He does have to keep the ball down,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “You’re going to get away with that a little more against some other teams. This team, there’s a reason why those left-handed numbers are what they are. If you make a mistake, they don’t miss them.”

The prior Cubs starter to give up five homers in a game was Carlos Zambrano, in his final start for Chicago last Aug. 12.

“Things didn’t go as planned,” Wood said. “I missed some pitches, and they didn’t miss the pitches that I missed.”

Chicago put two runners on in the eighth, bringing the potential tying run to the plate with one out, but Reed Johnson and Geovany Soto hit long flyouts off Marc Rzepczynski.

“I was real happy and impressed with the bullpen,” Matheny said.

— Associated Press —