Tony La Russa was defiant. It was just one loss, nothing more.

The St. Louis Cardinals manager insisted his playoff-hopeful team wouldn’t be crushed after blowing a four-run cushion in the ninth inning and watching the New York Mets rally for an 8-6 win Thursday.

“Don’t make a mistake and say we’re heartbroken,” La Russa barked. “Our heart’s beating. We won the series, get ready for tomorrow.”

The loss dropped St. Louis two games behind idle Atlanta for the wild card, with each team having six games left. The Cardinals lost for only the third time in 16 games.

Shortstop Rafael Furcal misplayed a potential double-play grounder at the start of the Mets’ six-run burst, fueling the comeback with his fifth error in six games.

“I think he probably tried to hurry it,” La Russa said. “I think he’s just trying to do too much. He does a lot so it’s hard to fault him.”

Ahead 6-2, the Cardinals walked three batters in helping the Mets take the lead. Willie Harris drew a walk to begin the inning and capped it with a tiebreaking, two-run single with two outs.

Harris, who played for the Braves in 2007, said Atlanta coach Terry Pendleton texted him, “Way to go.”

It was the Mets’ biggest ninth-inning comeback since they scored five to beat the Cubs 6-5 on May 17, 2007, in New York.

“When you go to work you should go to work hard,” Harris said. “I think today shows these guys in this locker room care about each other and we want to win.”

The Mets, who had lost nine of their previous 11, came back against three St. Louis relievers.

“To come back against that team, that bullpen, in the ninth inning is huge,” manager Terry Collins said.

After Harris drew a leadoff walk, Nick Evans hit a routine grounder to Furcal. But Furcal, acquired in late July to boost the Cardinals’ playoff push, fumbled the ball.

Jason Motte walked three of the five batters he faced, including pinch-hitter Justin Turner with the bases loaded. Marc Rzepczynski (0-3) allowed Jose Reyes’ RBI single.

“I felt fine going out there, the ball was just kind of moving all over the place,” Motte said. “One would sink, one would run, one would cut. I was doing everything I could, it just wasn’t going really anywhere I wanted it to go.”

Motte pitched for the third time in four games. He worked 1 1/3 innings while allowing a run to get the save in a 6-5 victory Wednesday night.

“He may be getting distracted by somebody thinking he’s the closer,” La Russa said. “He’s not the closer. He’s the closer a lot of times. He doesn’t need to be distracted by that nonsense.”

Left fielder Shane Robinson almost saved the Cardinals with a diving try, but Ruben Tejada’s drive glanced off the tip of his outstretched glove for a two-run double that made it 6-all. Fernando Salas, making his fifth appearance in seven games, gave up the hits to Tejada and Harris.

Salas said through an interpreter, fellow reliever Octavio Dotel, that fatigue was not a factor.

“Every one of those guys had a green light, they all had a green light to pitch,” La Russa said. “We’re trying to play our way into the playoffs and this is when you push.”

Albert Pujols and Allen Craig homered for the Cardinals. The game was delayed 2 hours and 19 minutes by rain before the first pitch.

Harris missed a two-run homer by inches in the fourth on a drive to right that curved just foul, waving his arms in triumph on the bases and then in disgust after the play was upheld after a video review.

Pujols reached base safely for the 38th straight game, breaking a tie with Andre Ethier for the longest streak in the league this season and leaving him one shy of matching Johnny Damon’s major league-best. His NL-leading 37th homer left him two RBIs shy of a solid slate of 11 career 100-RBI seasons.

Craig has been filling in for injured Matt Holliday, and putting up Holliday-style numbers with three homers, three doubles and seven RBIs in eight games. He hit a two-run homer off Chris Capuano in the first and he also doubled.

Pujols, who homered in the fifth, is a career .545 hitter (18 for 33) against Capuano with five homers, four doubles and 12 RBIs.

Jake Westbrook allowed a run on three hits in six innings, retiring 13 of the first 15 hitters before running into trouble in the fifth when he walked Reyes on four pitches to load the bases and Tejada on five pitches to force in a run.

Yadier Molina added an RBI double in the Cardinals’ two-run seventh, giving him a single-season best of 63 RBIs.

— Associated Press —

St. Louis Cardinals Sr. Vice President/General Manager John Mozeliak announced today that the Cardinals have agreed to terms with outfielder/first baseman Lance Berkman on a one-year contract for the 2012 season.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Berkman, 35, has been a standout for the Cardinals this season, ranking among National League leaders in home runs (31), slugging pct. (.555), on-base pct. (.412) and batting average (.300), while playing a solid outfield.  Named an All-Star starter this year (his 6th selection), Berkman is batting .355 with runners in scoring position (ranking 2nd in the N.L.) and .394 during the Cardinals’ September charge.

“Lance proved to be everything we were looking for when we signed him last December,” stated Mozeliak.  “He’s an impact player who helped solidify our everyday lineup while also bringing a wealth of experience to our team.  We are excited to announce that he is going to remain a part of our team in 2012.”

The switch-hitting Berkman owns a career batting mark of .296 with 358 home runs and 1190 RBI in 1,767 games.  His career .409 on-base percentage is ranked 4th among active players and his .546 slugging mark is ranked 10th.    Berkman has placed among the N.L. top-10 in on-base pct. eight times and has finished among the league’s top-10 in batting on four occasions.  Berkman’s 358 career homers are 4th all-time among switch-hitters.

The six-time All-Star (2001-02, 2004, 2006, 2008 & 2011) holds the National League record for single-season RBI by a switch-hitter with 136 in 2006.  He’s had six seasons with 100 or more RBI and belted 25 or more home runs nine times, including a career best 45 in 2006.  His 31 home runs this season are just four shy of Rip Collins’ single-season (1934) club record of 35 by a switch-hitter.

The Cardinals announced a two-year contract extension thru 2013 for starting pitcher Chris Carpenter last week.

— Cardinals Public Relations —

David Freese and the St. Louis Cardinals are really enjoying the final stretch.

Freese drove in five runs with a go-ahead three-run homer and a triple, and the surging St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Mets 6-5 Wednesday night for their 12th win in 14 games.

With the win, the Cardinals moved within 1½ games of Atlanta in the National League wild-card race. St. Louis, a season-high 17 games over .500 (86-69), has seven games left and will go for a sweep of the Mets on Thursday.

“The real fun in this game is to play meaningful games this time of year and you have the most fun playing in October,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “The guys are having a lot of fun because we played ourselves back into this. You can feel it.”

Freese certainly enjoyed watching his homer, which gave the Cardinals a 6-4 advantage in the seventh.

“That was a good feeling,” Freese said. “Obviously, the biggest hit of my career and getting that win is huge.”

The Mets fell to 73-82, ensuring the third straight losing season for the big-spending ballclub that has been plagued by injuries and off-field financial woes this year.

Jaime Garcia (13-7), making his 30th start, pitched around four unearned runs in 7 2/3 innings. He gave up six hits and struck out five.

“What Jaime did, not getting frustrated and keeping us in the game, was classic,” La Russa said.

Jason Motte got four outs for his eighth save in 12 opportunities but allowed a solo home run to Willie Harris in the ninth.

Pujols went 2-for-4 with two runs scored to extend his hitting streak to six games and up his average to .305. Pujols has now reached base safely in 37 straight games. He is hitting .500 during his six-game streak (13-for-26).

Allen Craig drove in the Cardinals’ other run with an RBI single.

New York manager Terry Collins said the Cardinals might be a tough out if they can make the playoffs.

“They got a good team,” Collins said. “The lineup’s tough. I know Edwin Jackson will help them pitching-wise. He’s a good pitcher. They got a lot of weapons. Coming off the bench they got speed and defense.”

Mets shortstop Jose Reyes went 1-for-4, dropping his average to .330 and tying him with Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun for the National League batting lead.

The Mets led 4-3 after six and the Cardinals were going quietly in the seventh when Pujols singled to center off reliever Miguel Batista with two outs.

Collins brought in lefty Daniel Herrera (0-1) to make Lance Berkman bat right-handed, but Berkman foiled the strategy by singling to left.

Collins then went to righty Pedro Beato and Freese tagged him for a 389-foot, opposite-field homer to right to give the Cardinals a 6-4 advantage. The homer was the 10th for Freese, who has 54 RBIs.

“I tried to go fastball low and away,” Beato said. “I was behind in the count and trying not to walk him in that situation. I left the pitch right out over the middle of the plate and he took a good swing at it.”

With a 3-0 lead, Garcia struck out the first two batters to begin the third. But Mets starter Chris Schwinden kept the inning alive with a single to right and Reyes followed with a double down the left-field line. Both scored when Angel Pagan’s grounder went under shortstop Rafael Furcal’s glove for an error to make it 3-2.

David Wright followed Pagan with an infield single in the hole to shortstop. Pinch hitter Josh Satin then gave the Mets a 4-3 advantage with a double to the gap in left-center.

Schwinden retired the first two batters he faced to begin the game, but then gave up a double to right to Pujols. He then intentionally walked Berkman, and Freese made him pay for that with a triple down the right-field that scored Pujols and Berkman.

The Cardinals loaded the bases in the second with one out on an infield single by Yadier Molina, a double by Skip Schumaker and a hit-by-pitch to Furcal. Craig singled to center to make it 3-0, but Schwinden got Pujols to pop out to first and Berkman to fly to left to end the threat.

— Associated Press —

The celebration in the St. Louis clubhouse showed just how excited the surging Cardinals are to be in the thick of the playoff chase.

Kyle Lohse outpitched Roy Halladay, and St. Louis held off the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 on Monday night to gain ground on Atlanta in the NL wild-card race.

Lance Berkman homered and had an RBI single for the Cardinals, who moved within 2½ games of the wild card-leading Braves.

Moments after Octavio Dotel closed out the Cardinals’ victory, Atlanta lost 6-5 at Florida on Omar Infante’s two-run homer off Craig Kimbrel with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Cardinals, who were watching the game on television, burst into loud cheers that reverberated around the clubhouse.

“To win our game we’re already pretty happy, and to see that, that was big,” Lohse said.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who was tuned to the Rams-Giants NFL game in his office, smiled when he heard the news.

“This is what the pennant race is all about,” La Russa said. “This is what you try to sell in spring training. This is the fun of it. It’s part of the fun of being in contention in September.”

St. Louis, which took three of four in the series, has won 10 of 12 overall.

Despite the loss, the NL East champion Phillies clinched home-field advantage throughout the postseason when Milwaukee lost to the Chicago Cubs 5-2.

Lohse (14-8) tossed 7 1/3 strong innings, allowing an unearned run and seven hits while striking out five and walking one.

“I thought Lohse was outstanding,” La Russa said. “You just can’t give him enough credit. We had our best defensive team out there and we kicked it around. He picked everybody up all day.”

The Cardinals, who made a pair of errors, have nine games remaining and return to St. Louis for a six-game homestand that begins Tuesday against the Mets.

Atlanta has eight games left, including the final three against the Phillies in Atlanta.

“We’ve had our backs up against the wall for a long time now,” Lohse said. “Every series has been tough. We knew coming in here was going to be really tough. To take three out of four was huge. We’ve just got to keep it going.”

The Phillies scored a pair of runs in the ninth off reliever Jason Motte. Carlos Ruiz doubled with one out and scored on Jimmy Rollins’ triple. Rollins scored on Shane Victorino’s groundout.

Arthur Rhodes relieved Motte and gave up a two-out single to Chase Utley. Dotel followed and retired Hunter Pence to earn his second save with the Cardinals. He also had one for Toronto this year.

The Phillies lost their second straight since clinching their fifth consecutive NL East title on Saturday. Philadelphia played most of its regulars, with only Ryan Howard getting the day off after receiving an anti-inflammatory injection in his left ankle. Howard is expected to miss a couple of days.

The Phillies (98-54) remained four victories shy of setting a franchise record for wins in a season.

“We came out a little flat, but that’s not going to last,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “We’ll be ready.”

Phillies hitters have been in a bit of a lull lately. Philadelphia has scored three runs or fewer in 10 of its last 11 games, averaging 2.5 runs while going 5-6.

“I’m looking for our offense to pick up,” Manuel said. “We’ve got to start scoring some runs before we go into the playoffs.”

Halladay (18-6) had won seven straight September decisions and was 9-0 with a 1.97 ERA in his last 10 September starts dating to 2009. But he failed in his bid for his 19th victory and 40th over the last two seasons, which would’ve marked the first time a Philadelphia pitcher accomplished that since Steve Carlton won 42 games combined in 1979-80.

Halladay tossed eight innings and allowed four runs on six hits with six strikeouts and a season-high four walks (two intentional).

“Hopefully we’ll get things going and finish on the right foot,” Halladay said. “We’ve won all year and there’s no doubt we’ll continue that. There’s no cause for concern. Naturally there’s a little lull after you clinch.”

Berkman’s solo homer and Nick Punto’s RBI groundout in the first helped the Cardinals take a 2-0 lead. It was Berkman’s 31st homer, but first since Aug. 26.

The Phillies got a run back in the second on Ruiz’s single.

St. Louis regained a two-run lead in the third when Lohse, after hitting his second double of the season to lead off the inning, scored on Berkman’s two-out single.

Philadelphia had a chance for a big inning in the bottom half, loading the bases with one out on a pair of singles and an error, but Lohse struck out Raul Ibanez and Placido Polanco to end the threat.

Albert Pujols’ two-out double to left in the seventh drove in Punto and gave the Cardinals a 4-1 lead. The slugger, who had been 1 for 10 against Halladay, has reached safely in 35 straight games.

Philadelphia lost a four-game series for the first time this season after winning its previous eight. The Phillies have scored three runs or fewer in 10 of their last 11 games, averaging 2.5 runs while going 5-6.

Rafael Furcal went 3 for 4 with two doubles for St. Louis.

— Associated Press —

The St. Louis Cardinals are making a playoff push by avoiding looking at the big picture.

Allen Craig hit two homers and drove in three runs, Chris Carpenter gave up eight hits in eight innings, and the Cardinals improved their playoff chances with a 5-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday night.

“Common sense is if you allow anything to distract you, then it’s going to take away from your best shot,” St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa said after the Cardinals pulled within 3 1/2 games of the Atlanta Braves in the NL wild-card chase. “So don’t think about anything but the next game we’re going to play. We can’t control what Atlanta does. But if we don’t win a bunch of games, then it’s all irrelevant. We’re just trying to win the game we play in the series we’re playing.”

Albert Pujols also homered for the Cardinals (83-69), who have won nine of 11. The Cardinals remained 6 1/2 back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central.

“We just need to take one day at a time,” Pujols said. “We took today’s game. Flip the page and hopefully come tomorrow and try to win the series.”

St. Louis has 10 games remaining while the Braves (87-66) have nine.

Carpenter (10-9) recorded all but four of his outs by groundballs, and induced three double plays. Only three Phillies reached second and none advanced to third. Carpenter finished with five strikeouts and one walk.

“I was getting ahead in the count, sinking the ball down and away and getting the ball on the ground, which is key for these guys,” Carpenter said. “My stuff was good, commanding down in the strike zone on both sides of the plate with my fastball. When you’re against guys who want to swing, if you make good pitches, you get early outs.”

Chase Utley had three hits for the Phillies (98-53), who rested just two starters a day after clinching their fifth straight NL East title. First baseman Ryan Howard, who is battling a nagging left ankle injury, and catcher Carlos Ruiz didn’t start for Philadelphia. Howard is scheduled to have an anti-inflammatory injection in the ankle on Monday.

“Their pitcher pitched good,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “He was changing speeds and had a good sinker. The double plays made it difficult to score runs.”

Pujols put the Cardinals up 2-0 in the first inning by launching Cole Hamels’ first pitch into the second deck in left field. The St. Louis slugger had been just 3 for 20 (.150) off Hamels entering the game.

“Pujols hit a fastball that looked like it was inside, but Pujols is Pujols,” Manuel said.

It was the 36th homer for Pujols, who is five RBIs shy of 100 in his quest for his 11th straight season of batting .300 with 30 homers and 100 RBIs. He went 1 for 4 and his averaged dropped a point to .300.

“I’ve seen it for 11 years,” LaRussa said. “It got everybody excited and Hamels got really, really tough, so it’s a good thing we got him before everything got working.”

St. Louis increased the margin to 4-0 in the sixth on Craig’s two-run shot. Craig twice failed in sacrifice bunt attempts, but he made up for it with a long drive to deep left center. Craig’s homer was the 17th allowed by Hamels this season, which is the most on the heralded Phillies staff.

Craig added a solo shot to center in the eighth off Joe Blanton.

“He’s hit every place he’s played,” LaRussa said of Craig. “And he’s gotten big hits and those are two big ones.”

Hamels (14-9) was vying to tie his career high with 15 wins, but two bad pitches did him in. Outside of the homers, the left-hander was solid with nine strikeouts and no walks.

Philadelphia remained four victories shy of setting a franchise record for wins in a season.

Fernando Salas completed the shutout with a scoreless ninth.

Carpenter hopes the Cardinals can continue the momentum.

“You continue to play hard, just like we have all year,” he said. “Fortunately, we’ve been pitching well and hitting well. Some things are going well for us at times and we’re pitching and playing well. That’s what you have to do.

“We’ve been playing well and hopefully we can continue it tomorrow and get back home and continue it at home.”

— Associated Press —

An unlikely hero emerged for surging St. Louis as the Cardinals kept alive their playoff push while putting the Philadelphia Phillies’ title celebration on hold.

Adron Chambers drove in the go-ahead run with his first major league hit and Tyler Greene added an RBI double in the 11th inning to help St. Louis beat Philadelpha 4-2.

“It was a great example of what we’ve been doing,” Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa said. “The guys were outstanding. We hung in there and got a great win. It was a huge moment for Adron and Tyler Greene got a big hit.”

St. Louis appeared to have the game won in the ninth, but Corey Patterson dropped Carlos Ruiz’s drive to right with two outs allowing the tying run to score.

The Phillies (97-51), who have already clinched no worse than the wild card, saw their magic number cut to one for winning their fifth straight NL East title when second-place Atlanta lost to the New York Mets 12-2.

“We didn’t do enough hitting tonight to get there,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “We’re going to clinch. I like our position. Nobody’s scared. We’re going to do it.”

Yadier Molina homered and Albert Pujols went 4-for-4 for the Cardinals, who have won eight of nine and closed within 3 1/2 games of the Braves for the NL wild card lead. St. Louis remained 5 1/2 back of Milwaukee in the NL Central.

“We’ll see if we can ride this,” LaRussa said.

Kyle McClellan (12-6) pitched a scoreless 10th, and Fernando Salas earned his 24th save in 29 chances with a scoreless 11th.

Chambers, batting for the second time in his career since his Sept. 6 callup, lined a single to right off Michael Schwimmer (1-1) to score Rafael Furcal and give St. Louis a 3-2 lead. Greene followed with a double off the top of the wall in left to plate Pujols and put the Cardinals up two runs. Chambers was tagged out at the plate trying to score from first.

“It was a real thrill,” Chambers said. “I’m really happy about it. The situation came up for me. I was able to get the job done. Right now I’m just trying to play hard. These guys have been here all year so I’m just trying to help as much as I can.

“I hope another chance comes up so I can do it again.”

The Cardinals were leading 2-1 with two outs in the ninth when Ruiz drove in the tying run with a drive to right field. Patterson, a defensive replacement, got to the ball in time but it went in and out of his glove just inside the line in deep right to allow pinch-runner Michael Martinez to score. The play was first ruled a hit before being changed to an error.

Martinez was running for Philadelphia slugger Ryan Howard, who was not in the starting lineup for the fourth time in nine days with a nagging ankle injury, but came on with two outs in the ninth and doubled to right, just beating Patterson’s throw with a headfirst slide. It was the second straight big pinch-hit for Howard, who drove in the winning run in Thursday night’s 2-1, 10-inning victory over Florida.

“We would’ve liked to have done it tonight but we look at the positives and move forward,” Philadelphia center fielder Shane Victorino said. “We were able to come back and we didn’t give up. We’ll look at the positives and come back tomorrow.”

St. Louis appeared on its way to victory when Molina broke a 1-1 tie with a solo homer in the eighth off the foul pole against Antonio Bastardo. The Cardinals catcher also gunned down John Mayberry Jr. at second with an impressive throw in the seventh.

“You’ve just got to see him every day,” LaRussa said of Molina. “I’ve never seen anyone better.”

Bastardo, who has been surprisingly dominant this season, has struggled of late. Beginning Sept. 3 when he took his first loss of the season at Florida, the Philadelphia left-hander has allowed five runs on four hits while walking three in his last five appearances.

Jaime Garcia pitched seven strong innings and kept the Phillies batters off-balance all game, allowing just one hit outside of the second inning when Philadelphia managed four hits, including two infield singles, and one run. The left-hander was in line for his 13th victory, which would have matched his career high for wins in a season. He finished with four strikeouts against two walks.

“I’m pleased with what I did and glad we got the win,” Garcia said. “We’ve got something special going on and the main thing is to win for the team.”

Phillies starter Vance Worley pitched six solid innings, allowing one run on six hits while striking out five and walking three. The NL Rookie of the Year candidate was coming off Sunday’s 3-2 loss at Milwaukee that snapped a streak of 14 games in a row won by the Phillies in his starts. His record remained at 11-2 while his ERA dropped slightly to 2.85, from 2.92 entering the game.

The Cards took a 1-0 lead in the second when Worley walked in a run, but the right-hander escaped further trouble when he got Allen Craig to ground out with the bases loaded for the final out.

John Mayberry Jr., starting in place of Howard, hit an RBI double in the bottom of the frame to tie it at 1, but the Phillies also stranded the bases loaded when Jimmy Rollins popped out to second.

Philadelphia remained five wins shy of setting a single-season franchise record for victories.

— Associated Press —

Wearing Hawaiian shirts as they headed out for a cross-country flight, the Pittsburgh Pirates insisted that a record 19th consecutive losing season was a year of progress.

“This isn’t anything like before,” losing pitcher Charlie Morton said after Wednesday’s 3-2 defeat to St. Louis clinched another sub-.500 record. “The atmosphere is totally different. We were in contention for a good while. It’s been a long time since that’s happened.”

Yadier Molina hit a tiebreaking, two-run double in the fourth for the Cardinals.

A year after going a big league-worst 57-105, the Pirates were 51-44 and led the NL Central by a half-game before play on July 20. But they have gone 16-38 since, leaving them at 67-82.

“Our how-to is going to have to get better, because we’ve got to get this organization to the point where we’re no longer talking about consecutive losing seasons,” said first-year manager Clint Hurdle, who planned the Hawaiian shirts in advance.

When the Pirates last had a winning season, Barry Bonds led them to Game 7 of the NL championship series. At times this year, it seemed like the Pirates finally were on their way to a winning season.

“They compete,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “Clint and his coaching staff have done a really good job of getting their players to play hard for nine innings. They’ve played us tough and everybody else, too.”

St. Louis, which has 13 games left, has won seven of eight and remained 4½ games behind Atlanta in the NL wild-card race. The Cardinals began the day 6½ games back of Milwaukee in the NL Central.

Edwin Jackson (5-2) allowed two runs and eight hits in 7 1/3 innings and improved to 4-0 in his career against Pittsburgh. Three relievers combined to hold Pittsburgh scoreless over the final 2 1/3 innings. Jason Motte pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save in 10 chances.

“Anytime you can get a quality start and the team wins, it’s a good day,” Jackson said. “It’s a game we really needed. We can’t afford to lose a series.”

Morton (9-10) lost his fourth straight start, giving up three runs, six hits and three walks in seven innings.

With the score 1-1 in the fourth, Molina doubled off Charlie Morton (9-10), a drive off the out-of-town scoreboard in right field.

“I was just looking to drive in a run in that situation,” Molina said. “He likes to pitch me on the outside part of the plate and I got a pitch up and away that I could drive.”

Derrek Lee, who went 3 for 3, pulled the Pirates within a run when he hit an RBI double in the sixth.

Rafael Furcal hit a double on the game’s first pitch and scored on Allen Craig’s two-out double.

Pittsburgh tied it in the second in the third when Michael McKerny led off with a double and Alex Presley doubled him home with one out.

— Associated Press —

Not even a shaky defensive performance by Albert Pujols could cool the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals.

Nick Punto hit a go-ahead double in the ninth inning and the surging Cardinals overcame three errors by their superstar first baseman to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 Tuesday night.

Trying to stay in the wild card and NL Central races, the Cardinals won for the sixth time in seven games.

“We still got a huge hole to climb out of, but at least we’re playing some meaningful baseball in September,” Punto said.

The loss dropped the Pirates to 67-81. Once in the midst of a promising run, they are stuck with a non-winning season for the 19th straight year. Pittsburgh is just 16-37 since briefly moving into first place on July 19.

“We haven’t done enough things in a number of these games that have put us in position to have 81 losses, that’s where we are right now,” manager Clint Hurdle said.

Working on the day he signed a $21 million, two-year contract, Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter hit an early two-run single. He took a 4-2 lead into the seventh, but Andrew McCutchen tied it with a two-out homer.

“I was battling all night but I made some good pitches when I had to,” Carpenter said. “It was one of those nights … but it wasn’t like they were bashing it all over the place. But we did what we needed to do, and that’s what’s important right now.”

The Pirates brought in closer Joel Hanrahan (0-4) in the ninth inning of a tie game, and he struggled with his command. Daniel Descalso collected his third single with one out and was replaced by Tyler Greene.

Punto has struggled with injuries this year but looked just fine drilling a Hanrahan fastball into the gap and Greene scored easily. Pujols provided some insurance with a sacrifice fly to take some of the sting out of his woeful night in the field. The two-time Gold Glove winner now has 14 errors this season.

“When you play this game, crazy things are going to happen,” Pujols said. “At the end I just flip the page and I’m glad we got the win and those three errors didn’t cause a loss.”

The Pirates put runners on first and second with no outs in the ninth, but Pedro Ciriaco bunted into a forceout and Neil Walker grounded into a double play to end it.

Kyle McClellan (11-6) earned the win in relief and Jason Motte worked the ninth for his sixth save.

Carpenter, now signed to stay with St. Louis through 2013, allowed 10 hits, struck out six and walked one. The 36-year-old right-hander appeared well on his way to his 10th victory of the season until McCutchen hit his 23rd homer, snapping out of a 1-for-15 slump.

“I had good stuff tonight,” Carpenter said. “I felt like I did the best I could and I got beat by one pitch late in the game.”

Pittsburgh, which rallied for a dramatic 6-5 win on Monday, couldn’t finish the job this time as the Cardinals kept their flickering playoff hopes alive.

“It was a good, gutty hang-in-there type of win, especially after yesterday,” manager Tony La Russa said. “You get your heart broken, which means it wasn’t broken, it was just bruised a little bit.”

Heartbreak is an all-too familiar feeling in Pittsburgh and some baserunning gaffes helped continue the team’s late-summer swoon.

The Pirates lost an apparent run in the fifth after Ciriaco tagged up on a fly by Derrek Lee. Carpenter threw the ball to third and Ciriaco was called out on appeal for leaving too early.

Hurdle came out to argue before heading back to the dugout, then took up the cause a half-inning later and was promptly ejected for the fifth time this season.

“I couldn’t let Pedro wear it,” Hurdle said. “Everybody in the ballpark thinks he left early and that’s not normal protocol to go in there after that but I had someone I trust tell me ‘No, he left right on time’ and I just can’t let the kid wear it. I’ve got to have his back.”

Lee singled and scored on Pujols’ error in the second, and hit a solo home run in the third. Still, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Pirates from coming within one loss of yet another losing season.

“I made three mistakes, three errors, and they made some mistakes running the bases,” Pujols said. “It happens. It’s part of the game.”

— Associated Press —

Chris Carpenter never wanted to leave St. Louis. The Cardinals never wanted to see the former Cy Young Award winner go.

Still, there were moments this season, as the months passed and his club option for 2012 loomed, when the veteran right-hander wondered if he was a part of the team’s future.

“As the year went on it was definitely a concern,” Carpenter said.

Not anymore.

Carpenter signed a $21 million, two-year contract with the Cardinals on Tuesday that will keep him around until at least 2013.

“We believe with him and Adam Wainwright we do have that 1-2 punch that we were so hopeful for this year and are glad it can be something we look forward to for 2012 and ’13,” general manager John Mozeliak said.

The 36-year-old Carpenter said he feels “great” as he nears the end of an uneven season for both himself and the team. He entered Tuesday night’s start against Pittsburgh at 9-9 with a 3.75 ERA as the Cardinals try to stay in the playoff picture.

St. Louis began the day 4½ games behind Atlanta in the wild-card race and 6½ games in back of Milwaukee in the NL Central.

“There’s all kinds of things that happened this year that kind of shuffled things around,” Carpenter said. “I like the way the team continued to play and continues to compete (but) we could never get on that roll.”

Time is running out to make something happen this year, though Carpenter remains optimistic about the future. Wainwright, who missed the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, will be back next spring and Carpenter is doing his part to make sure the team has money to retain core players.

The new contract frees up some money next year, giving the team some wiggle room as it tries to re-sign first baseman Albert Pujols. Mozeliak said negotiations between the club and its superstar have not resumed but believes Carpenter’s signing is the first step in the process of keeping Pujols.

“Clearly getting Chris Carpenter done puts an exclamation point on our rotation for 2012 and we can start setting our sights on other objectives,” Mozeliak said.

Carpenter didn’t rule out playing beyond 2013 but stressed it’s important for him to remain with St. Louis. The three-time All-Star is 93-42 in his nine seasons with the club and is fourth on the team’s all-time strikeout list.

It’s heady company for a player who has struggled to stay off the disabled list since winning the 2005 NL Cy Young Award.

He missed most of the 2007 and 2008 seasons with a series of arm injuries. He had bone spurs removed from his pitching elbow in May 2007 and had reconstructive elbow surgery that July, sidelining him until July 2008. A nerve in his right elbow was transposed in December 2008.

Carpenter rebounded with a sterling 2009 in which he went 17-4 and posted an NL-leading 2.24 ERA. He went 16-9 last season but hasn’t been quite as sharp this summer, though he’s coming off an impressive four-hit shutout win over Milwaukee that manager Tony La Russa called one of the best performances he’s seen all season.

While allowing every season is different, Carpenter is confident he can be effective well into the future.

“I believe I can be better than I was this year, try and be more consistent,” he said. “If I’m healthy, I’m going to be fine.”

Carpenter is 142-92 with a 3.79 ERA in 14 seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cardinals.

Closer to the end of his career than the beginning, Carpenter is well aware of the company he’s keeping.

“The whole time I’ve been here, there have been a lot of referrals to ‘the last guy to do this is Bob Gibson,’ ” Carpenter said. “I’m not Bob Gibson but … (hopefully) when my career is over, people look back and say even though (I wasn’t) Bob Gibson, Chris Carpenter was a big part of this tradition.”

— Associated Press —