Nick Punto’s alter ego is The Shredder, a maniac who rips dress shirts right off a teammates’ torso.

“It’s been known to happen on occasion,” the St. Louis Cardinals’ utilityman said. “I’ve actually shredded people’s dress shirts on airplane flights.”

Teammates returned the favor after Punto’s game-winning sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the 10th inning beat the Atlanta Braves 4-3 on Friday night. During the ensuing celebration on the field, they tore off Punto’s jersey.

“I guess that was payback,” Punto said. “It’s a celebration of friendship, good friends.”

Albert Pujols’ two-run single with two outs in the ninth off Craig Kimbrel tied it for the Cardinals, who kept alive faint postseason hopes.

“Our season is not over,” Pujols said. “All we can do is go out there and give it our best and hopefully at the end we can look back and say we gave it our best this year.”

Pujols had three hits and his hit just inside the first-base line with two outs in the ninth ended Kimbrel’s streak of 25 consecutive saves. The Cardinals loaded the bases on a hit and two walks for Pujols, who is 4 for 10 with 11 RBIs with the bases loaded.

“Whenever you put guys on for free, it seems like it always comes back to get you,” Kimbrel said. “I hung a pitch there at the end and he kept it inside the line.

“I made a mistake and he made me pay for it.”

Pujols is batting .298 and has 87 RBIs with 18 games to go. He’s batted .300 with 100 RBIs each of his 11 seasons.

Matt Holliday and Lance Berkman singled off Scott Linebrink (4-3) to start the 10th and moved up on a sacrifice. Skip Schumaker was intentionally walked before Punto, with a full count, ended it with a line drive to center in his first plate appearance since coming off the 15-day disabled list from an oblique injury.

Punto has been limited to only 48 games and has been on the disabled list three times.

“It’s been a tough year for me, definitely,” Punto said. “To be able to put that ball in play, it was huge.”

Pujols said Punto was among a small group of teammates able to shred shirts. Punto absolved himself of financial obligation.

“The Shredder, he doesn’t pay guys back,” Punto said. “Nick would. I’m a good guy. The Shredder, not so much.”

Kimbrel leads the majors with 43 saves but he got his first blown save since June 14. He had worked 38 consecutive scoreless outings covering 37 2/3 innings, allowing 14 hits and 11 walks with 67 strikeouts.

Jason Motte (4-2) worked a perfect 10th for the Cardinals, who are 6½ games behind the Braves for the NL wild card and seven behind NL-Central leading Milwaukee.

Michael Bourn matched his career best with four hits and an RBI for the Braves, who also got RBI doubles from Brian McCann and Freddie Freeman in the first inning. Chipper Jones was robbed his first two trips by Berkman’s outstanding running catch at the track in right in the first inning and second baseman Skip Schumaker’s leaping grab of a liner in the third. Jones singled in the seventh.

Bourn’s RBI triple off Arthur Rhodes gave the Braves a 3-1 lead.

“That was great against a tough left-handed pitcher,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Get a triple and get another run, so you feel good.

“But again, you can’t run out the clock. You’ve got to throw it over the plate and get the last out and we just didn’t do that today.”

Randall Delgado was the fourth straight rookie starter for Atlanta and gave up a run and three hits in five innings in his fourth career start. He followed Greg Beachy, Mike Minor and Julio Teheran in the rotation for the Braves, who are without Tommy Hanson (right shoulder tendinitis) and Jair Jurrjens (straight right knee).

Linebrink has allowed six runs in 5 2/3 innings since coming off the disabled list from a lower back strain on Aug 14.

Edwin Jackson shut down the Braves his last five innings, although Atlanta left the bases loaded in the fourth. Rafael Furcal had three walks and a hit, and he was thrown out at second to end the seventh after trying for the extra base on a single after pinch runner Tyler Greene drew a throw to third.

Holliday and Pujols grounded into double plays to boost the Cardinals’ major league-leading total to 154, 12 shy of matching their own NL record set in 1958. Pujols leads the majors with 28 and Holliday is second in the NL with 20, one more than teammate Yadier Molina.

— Associated Press —

Chris Carpenter looked more like a Cy Young award winner than a .500 pitcher against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night.

Carpenter (9-9) pitched a four-hitter to record his 14th career shutout in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2-0 win.

Rafael Furcal provided the offense with a solo home run but Carpenter needed just 2 hours, 5 minutes for his first shutout since he blanked the Brewers 3-0 exactly two years before in Milwaukee. He struck out five and walked two, one intentional.

After losing the series opener on Monday, the Cardinals won the last two to move within 8 1/2 games of the first-place Brewers in the NL Central with 19 games to play.

The Cardinals are 6 1/2 games behind Atlanta in the wild card race with the Braves coming to St. Louis on Friday to start a three-game series. St. Louis won five of its last six against Milwaukee to earn a season series split (9-9).

“Nice win for us,” Carpenter said. “Going into an off day, with a big series coming up, to be able to get that win against a quality pitcher, a quality club we need to beat, it was a nice win all around and obviously I pitched well.”

Carpenter was 1-2 with a 5.68 ERA in three previous starts this season against Milwaukee. He said the difference was being able to locate his fastball.

“If you can locate your fastball on both sides of the plate, you’re going to have success,” Carpenter said. “If you get the ball in the middle of the plate, you’re not.

“I was able to get quick early outs because I was able to get balls on the corner. These guys obviously are a real nice hitting team.”

Corey Hart, who had his 18-game hitting streak snapped, felt his team was the victim more of bad luck than good pitching.

“We hit balls at people,” Hart said. “Sometimes a pitcher has to be a little lucky to win games. He threw the ball well, but if those balls fall, it’s a different story.”

St. Louis manager Tony La Russa saw a different game.

“Real good stuff, real good location, great concentration,” La Russa said of Carpenter. “He was the whole package tonight.”

The benches and bullpens emptied in the top of the ninth after Carpenter (9-9) struck out Nyjer Morgan. The two had words and Morgan headed toward the mound before being restrained by teammate Prince Fielder. No punches were thrown and Morgan was ejected.

“He’s a good player,” Carpenter said. “He’s a serious talent. He just plays the game a different way. I’m not going to play his game.”

Morgan said Carpenter yelled an expletive at him after the strikeout.

“There’s really nothing to explain,” Morgan said. “I was walking off the field until he said (that).

“Just hard ball. It was kind of a quick hook, but whatever.”

The home run was the third for Furcal in the last seven days against Milwaukee. He went deep twice in Milwaukee last week when the Cardinals swept the Brewers.

Jon Jay went 3 for 4 for his fifth straight multihit game and he has 11 hits in his last 17 at-bats. Albert Pujols was 2 for 4 but grounded into his major league-leading 27th double play.

Lance Berkman doubled to lead off the fourth against Milwaukee’s Zach Greinke (14-6) and scored the game’s first run on Yadier Molina’s sacrifice fly one out later.

Furcal made it 2-0 by leading off the fifth with his seventh home run.

Greinke went seven innings and allowed two runs and eight hits with four strikeouts.

— Associated Press —