Adam Wainwright pitched effectively into the eighth after a shaky start and helped himself at the plate with three hits as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 on Wednesday night to expand their lead in the NL Central race.

Wainwright (17-9) gave up two runs in the first and then found his groove to earn his 17th win, second-most in the NL this season.

He went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs to help the Cardinals stretch their lead to two games over Pittsburgh after the Pirates lost 3-2 loss to San Diego. St. Louis also reduced its magic number for clinching a playoff spot to three with 10 games to play.

Tyler Chatwood (7-5) allowed four runs in six innings before being lifted for a pinch hitter. Chatwood is rounding back into form after missing nearly a month with an inflamed right elbow.

The hard-throwing Wainwright allowed 10 hits and struck out eight before running into a jam with two on and two outs in the eighth. Reliever Trevor Rosenthal got Charlie Blackmon to ground out to end the threat. Edward Mujica pitched his way out of a bases loaded mess in ninth for his 37th save in 40 chances. He struck out Todd Helton, who’s retiring at the end of the season, to quiet the cheering crowd and end the game.

Michael Cuddyer remains the NL batting leader, keeping his average at .331 after going 1 for 3 on Wednesday. Cuddyer left the game shortly after making an inning-ending diving catch in the sixth. The team announced he was day to day with a bruised right forearm.

Cuddyer, a career .271 hitter entering this season, has a slight lead in the batting race over Atlanta’s Chris Johnson (.327).

St. Louis solve Chatwood in the third, stringing together four straight hits to tie the game at 2-all. Wainwright had an RBI double and Matt Carpenter followed with a run-scoring single. Carpenter now has 67 RBIs from the leadoff spot, the most by a Cardinals player since Lou Brock had 76 in 1967.

The Cardinals took the lead for good in the fourth when Yadier Molina led off the inning with a double and was brought home by Wainwright’s single. He now has five RBIs this season.

The Rockies began the game with four straight hits off Wainwright, including a two-run single by Troy Tulowitzki. That was certainly more offense than the Rockies had off Wainwright in May, when the Cardinals ace took a no-hitter into the eighth and finished with a two-hitter during a 3-0 victory.

Wainwright escaped more trouble in the first by getting Helton to hit into a 3-6-1 double play. Jordan Pacheco followed by lining out to Matt Adams to end the inning.

This is Helton’s last hurrah after announcing he was calling it a career after 17 years. Manager Walt Weiss said he plans to start Helton in each of the remaining nine games.

“I’m going to play him as much as he’s physically able to do it,” Weiss said. “Give the fans an opportunity to see him.”

Helton had a double in the sixth, the 587th of his career.

— Associated Press —

Matt Holliday had four hits, including a two-run homer, to help the St. Louis Cardinals take over sole possession of the NL Central with an 11-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals entered the night tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost 5-2 at home to San Diego. St. Louis reduced its magic number for clinching a playoff spot to five with 11 games remaining.

Joe Kelly (9-4) baffled the Rockies as he allowed three hits over five sharp innings before turning a 10-0 lead over to the bullpen. The hard-throwing right-hander has been one of the team’s most consistent pitchers since becoming a permanent member of the rotation in July.

Juan Nicasio (8-8) struggled with his command, lasting just 2 2-3 innings and allowing eight runs, which tied a career high.

Holliday led an 18-hit night by the Cardinals, who had seven players with at least two hits. Holliday finished 4 for 4 with a walk, double and two-run homer against his former team. He drove in three runs and scored twice.

The Cardinals ran away with the game in the third when they sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six times. Daniel Descalso had a two-run triple in the decisive inning, while Holliday added a double and an RBI single.

Colorado’s Michael Cuddyer finished 2 for 3 with a walk and an RBI to raise his average to.331, which is tops in the NL.

Kelly hardly seemed intimidated in his first start at Coors Field. He didn’t allow a base runner to reach as far as third base until the fourth inning. He wiggled out of that jam when first baseman Matt Adams corralled Josh Rutledge’s liner.

Once Kelly was out of the game, the Rockies went to work as they scored four runs off reliever Carlos Martinez in the seventh. But the bullpen shut down the Rockies from there, with Kevin Siegrist striking out pinch-hitter Jordan Pacheco to end the game.

Leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter was frequently on base for the Cardinals, with two singles and a hit by pitch. He leads the league hits (187), doubles (51) and multi-hit games (60).

Yadier Molina gave the Cardinals a lead in the first inning with a two-out single to center. Molina is one of the top hitters in the league with runners in scoring position.

Todd Helton nearly tied the game in the bottom half of the first, but Holliday made a leaping catch against the fence in left field.

The 40-year-old Helton announced last weekend his decision to retire after his 17th season with the Rockies. He leaves as the franchise’s leader in virtually every offensive category.

— Associated Press —

Todd Helton began his farewell tour in familiar style – by getting a big hit for the Colorado Rockies.

Helton started his final homestand with a key single in the eighth inning that helped the Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 on Monday night.

Charlie Blackmon had three hits and drove in three runs for the Rockies, who prevented the Cardinals from taking over sole possession of first place in the NL Central. They remained tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost 2-0 to San Diego.

”We are aware of where we are,” St. Louis outfielder Matt Holliday said.

Matt Carpenter and Matt Adams had two hits each for the Cardinals.

Helton was playing in front of Colorado fans for the first time since he announced his plans to retire at the end of the season, his 17th. He went public Saturday when the Rockies were in Arizona, and Monday afternoon the team held a formal press conference.

Helton talked about his future without baseball during the day, but he was all business during the game.

He received a standing ovation when he came to the plate in the first, and Cardinals starter Lance Lynn stood behind the mound and waited as the crowd saluted Helton.

The first baseman was given a loud ovation in each of his four plate appearances. His night started slow, but he had a big hit during the decisive rally.

Troy Tulowitzki led off with a walk against reliever Trevor Rosenthal (2-4), and one out later Helton singled to center to put runners at the corners. Wilin Rosario singled to give Colorado a 3-2 lead.

”Todd had a huge hit. That was a huge hit in that inning,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. ”I don’t expect anything different. I think he’s going to have a huge homestand.”

Helton was caught in a rundown between third and home for the second out, but Blackmon doubled to right to score Josh Rutledge from first to make it 4-2.

Pinch-hitter Ryan Wheeler’s two-run single off John Axford gave the Rockies a 6-2 cushion.

”I had a pitch that could have been a double play and it turned out to be a flare into right field,” Axford said.

The four-run eighth was a rare misstep by the Cardinals’ bullpen.

”Overall our bullpen has been very, very good,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”They will bounce back.”

Collin McHugh started for Colorado in place of lefty Jorge De La Rosa, who has a sore thumb on his pitching hand that forced him to miss his turn in the rotation. McHugh allowed one run and four hits, with the only damage coming on David Freese’s RBI single in the fifth.

He left after throwing 75 pitches in five innings.

Lynn stuck around longer and got stronger as the game progressed. He scattered four hits through six innings and didn’t let a runner past first after Tulowitzki’s first-inning double before running into trouble in the seventh.

After Lynn retired Helton in a nine-pitch at-bat, Rosario singled and moved to third on Rutledge’s bloop single to right.

Left-hander Kevin Siegrist relieved Lynn, and Blackmon lined an RBI single over the pulled-in infield to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead.

”He throws really hard so I was trying to catch up to a fastball,” Blackmon said. ”I knew that was going to be a tough at-bat, just trying to battle from the start and get a good swing on it.”

The Cardinals tied it in the eighth on Carpenter’s RBI double off Chad Bettis (1-3) that scored pinch-runner Pete Kozma from second.

The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the first on Tulowitzki’s RBI double.

— Associated Press —

Yadier Molina never got down during his recent rut. So the All-Star catcher wasn’t about to celebrate after breaking out of the skid on Sunday.

Molina had a home run and three singles as Shelby Miller and the St. Louis Cardinals remained tied for first place in the NL Central with a 12-2 win over the Seattle Mariners.

Molina’s second-inning homer off Erasmo Ramirez (5-2) snapped an 0-for-15 skid.

”It’s not about one guy, it’s about the team,” Molina said. ”I came out aggressive. But right now, it’s just about getting wins.”

Molina scored three times and raised his batting average to .317.

”Yadi’s had a special offensive year,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”He’s been so good. I just want him to keep going and finish the season the way he started.”

Matt Adams also homered as St. Louis finished up a 7-2 homestand and kept pace with Pittsburgh. Both teams are 87-62 with 13 games remaining.

Miller (14-9) gave up one earned run and three hits in five innings. He became the first St. Louis rookie to reach 14 wins in a season since Dick Hughes won 16 in 1967.

St. Louis got 19 hits after totaling just three runs on seven hits over the first two games of the series.

Matt Carpenter keyed the fourth-inning burst with a two-run bases-loaded single. Daniel Descalso and Matt Holliday also had RBI hits in the inning.

”The offense really showed up today,” Carpenter said. ”We were able to score some runs. That’s just the way it goes some times. There’s no rhyme or reason for why that happens, it’s just baseball.”

The Cardinals’ hit total was their second-highest total this season. The Cardinals had 21 hits in a 10-6 win against the Chicago Cubs on July 14.

”We took a lot of those grinding at-bats that we keep talking about,” Matheny said. ”They went deep in counts, they stayed within the zone and fouled off some tough ones. We’ve got everybody feeling right and contributing.”

The Cardinals batted around in the fourth and fifth, scoring four runs in each inning to hand Seattle its sixth loss in seven games.

Holliday and Carpenter finished with three hits and two RBIs two apiece.

Adams pushed the lead to 7-2 with his 14th homer to highlight the fifth.

Miller did not allow a hit in the first three innings and managed to battle through the fourth and fifth despite not having what he called his best stuff.

”Today I didn’t do the best job of attacking hitters,” Miller said. ”I was losing the strike zone, but I just kept battling through it.”

Seattle manager Eric Wedge was not surprised to see the Cardinals’ hitters break loose after struggling in back-to-back games.

”They really put it together today,” Wedge said. ”You look at their top five guys, they all have quite a bit to offer.”

Ramirez had pitched into the sixth inning in each of his last six starts, but was unable to hold off the Cardinals.

”I just kind of fell apart in that one inning,” he said. ”I got a little behind the count and I threw my fastball too much.”

— Associated Press —

Milwaukee Brewers rookie Tyler Thornburg found himself in the middle of a pennant race Thursday night, even though it was only in a spoiler role.

”You always want to try and make it as tough for those teams who have something to play for,” he said.

Thornburg did just that, tossing six solid innings to lead the Brewers over St. Louis 5-3. Sean Halton homered for Milwaukee, which snapped the Cardinals’ five-game winning streak.

St. Louis fell into a tie with Pittsburgh for the top spot in the NL Central. Both teams are 85-61 with 16 games remaining. The idle Cincinnati Reds are 2 1/2 back.

Milwaukee broke a three-game losing streak against St. Louis and beat the Cardinals for only the fourth time in 16 meetings this season.

”It’s important to beat these guys. They’ve been taking it to us pretty good,” manager Ron Roenicke said. ”We played a good game today. There were a lot of good things that happened.”

The Cardinals are 5-1 on their nine-game homestand.

Thornburg (2-1), making his eighth career start, gave up two runs and three hits. He spent most of the season with Triple-A Nashville, going 0-9 with a 5.79 ERA in 15 starts.

Thornburg struck out six and walked two. He has allowed two runs or fewer and gone six innings in all five major league starts this season.

Jim Henderson earned his 25th save in 29 opportunities.

”I thought I threw the ball pretty well,” Thornburg said. ”I was locating my fastball pretty well. Everything felt good.”

St. Louis outfielder Carlos Beltran was impressed with the right-hander.

”The first couple of at-bats you’re kind of like wondering, watching what he’s trying to do,” he said. ”We just couldn’t do anything against him.”

Halton, who had three RBIs, hit a two-run homer off Joe Kelly (8-4) in the fourth to put the Brewers up 4-0. Halton also had a run-scoring single in the second.

The round-tripper was the biggest hit of the season for Halton, a rookie starting his 15th game.

”This is as good as it gets for a guy like me,” he said. ”Getting called up in September, that’s all you can ask for is to be a factor.”

Like Thornburg, Halton loves the spoiler role.

”We’re in a (pennant) race all right, a race to knock someone else out,” he said.

The Brewers jumped on Kelly, who allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits in five innings. He won his previous five starts, and the Cardinals had won his last eight.

”My stuff felt good, I just missed on a couple pitches,” Kelly said. ”They didn’t hit the ball extremely hard. I just left some pitches up.”

Matt Adams hit a two-out solo homer in the ninth, his 13th of the season.

The Brewers scored single runs in each of the first two innings. Scooter Gennett and Jonathan Lucroy singled in the first, and Gennett came around on a groundout by Aramis Ramirez.

The Cardinals pulled to 4-2 in the fourth on a run-scoring double by Matt Holliday and a sacrifice fly by David Freese. They also put two on with one out in the sixth, but Thornburg retired Beltran and Freese to end the threat.

”We just had a lot of things not really going the way we wanted them to,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”We hit a few balls hard, but (Thornburg) threw a good game against us.”

— Associated Press —

Matt Holliday’s two-run home run in the sixth inning stunned Wily Peralta with the St. Louis Cardinals’ first hit and rookie Shelby Miller blanked the Milwaukee Brewers into the seventh inning of a 4-2 victory Tuesday night.

Norichika Aoki of the Brewers struck out three times for the first time in the majors, the last against rookie lefty Kevin Siegrist with a runner on second to end the seventh. Aoki entered the game as the toughest batter to fan in the majors this year, averaging one per 17.2 at-bats.

Matt Carpenter and Matt Adams added RBIs in the seventh and eighth for the NL Central leaders, who are 4-0 to begin a nine-game homestand. After a day off, the Cardinals built on momentum from a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh.

The 22-year-old Miller (13-9) emphasized more off-speed deliveries to keep the pitch count down and allowed five hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 6 2-3 innings. He’s 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in four starts against Milwaukee, the other two wins coming on the road.

Peralta (9-15) was significantly improved over his first two starts against the Cardinals, both in May, in which he allowed 12 runs and 22 hits in 9 1-3 innings. In 6 2-3 innings he was charged with three runs and three hits with seven strikeouts.

The Brewers avoided getting shut out for a third time by St. Louis on pinch-hitter Logan Schafer’s two-run homer off Edward Mujica in the ninth.

Peralta struck out five of the first seven hitters and the Cardinals had two baserunners the first five innings: a walk by Holliday in the fourth and first baseman Jonathan Lucroy’s error on a dropped throw in the third. Aoki kept the no-hitter going with a sliding catch down the right field line that robbed David Freese of a hit opening the fifth.

Holliday fouled balls off his left foot or ankle three times the first two at-bats, near where he’s wearing a guard from previous occurrences. Carpenter walked to open the sixth and Holliday saw just one pitch his third time against Peralta, hammering a fastball an estimated 424 feet to left-center for his 19th homer.

Siegrist, a 41st-round draft pick, has worked 18 consecutive scoreless innings and has held left-handed hitters to just four hits in 53 at-bats.

Rookie Scooter Gennett of Milwaukee had two hits and is batting .394

Brett Hull chucked a side-armed ceremonial first pitch, a day after the hockey Hall of Famer rejoined the St. Louis Blues as an executive vice president.

— Associated Press —

Michael Wacha is glad he’s graduated to a pennant race.

After finishing his college career at Texas A&M just over a year ago, the rookie pitched seven shutout innings and drove in two runs as the St. Louis Cardinals routed the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-2 Sunday for a three-game sweep.

The Cardinals outscored Pittsburgh 26-10 overall in taking the NL Central lead.

”It helped me going to A&M and playing in those big-time games and I guess gets me prepared for it,” Wacha said. ”So I just try not to think too much. I go out there and try to go out there and just trust myself. It ended up working out pretty well.”

The Pirates arrived at Busch Stadium this weekend with a 1 1/2-game division lead and a chance to cement their first winning season since 1992. They left trailing the Cardinals by 1 1/2 games and still stuck on 81 victories.

This was the last time this season Pittsburgh and St. Louis were scheduled to play.

Wacha (3-0) allowed two hits and walked two, both of which were erased on double plays. He struck out two and never had more than one runner on at a time.

Wacha hasn’t allowed a run in 19 2-3 consecutive innings.

”A young pitcher coming in and just staying within himself, really establishing the strike zone early,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”It seemed like he made some really good pitches as he got deeper into the game. He’s just making pitches all day. It’s impressive.”

Pittsburgh starter Charlie Morton (7-4) left with discomfort in his left foot in the second inning. He allowed five runs on six hits and two walks in 1 2-3 innings.

Morton left for Pittsburgh before the game was over and won’t join the team in Texas where it starts a three-game series Monday.

Manager Clint Hurdle said he didn’t know the extent of Morton’s injury. Hurdle said Morton was hurt when he was backing up a base.

”We weren’t sharp in any particular area of the game all weekend,” Hurdle said. ”They were much sharper than us across the board. It’s very difficult to win a game when you are not functioning.”

Morton hadn’t surrendered more than two runs since the Cardinals tagged him for five in a 13-0 victory on Aug. 1 in Pittsburgh. He went on to win his next three decisions over five starts, including a no-decision after giving up two runs in seven innings on Aug. 13 at St. Louis.

Wacha got his second career hit with a single up the middle on the first pitch he saw from Vin Mazzaro in a four-run fifth that scored David Freese and Matt Adams. St. Louis used 10 batters in the 28-minute inning – exactly how long Wacha needed to get through six innings of pitching.

”That was a lot of fun,” Wacha said of his hit. ”I told myself that I was going to hop on the first heater. I was able to sneak it by the shortstop up the middle. I was pretty fired up about that.”

Wacha also helped set up a three-run second with a sacrifice bunt that pushed Pete Kozma to third in front of consecutive doubles from Matt Carpenter and Jon Jay.

Jay scored on Morton’s final offering, a wild pitch that bounced just in front of the left-handed batter’s box.

The Cardinals jumped in front with two runs in the first. Carpenter and Jay singled to start the inning and Matt Holliday walked to load the bases. Carlos Beltran hit a sacrifice fly and Yadier Molina had an RBI grounder.

”We all knew what was at stake,” Carpenter said. ”This is the last time we get to play these guys, so it was a big series. I couldn’t be happier with the way it played out. Not just the fact that we won all three, but the fashion that we won all three. Really dominated, I feel like, every aspect of the game.”

Pittsburgh scored twice in the ninth off reliever Sam Freeman. Garrett Jones hit an RBI double and Gaby Sanchez had a sacrifice fly.

Jones said Wacha had the Pirates guessing all day.

”He has deception,” he said. ”That downward angle can be tricky. He was able to hit his spots and he has a good arm.”

— Associated Press —

Andy Dirks and Omar Infante were the five-hit stars for the Detroit Tigers on Friday night.

Infante set career highs with five hits and six RBIs, Dirks also went 5 for 5 and the Tigers pounded the Kansas City Royals 16-2.

”I don’t know how many times it happened, two guys with five hits in the same game,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. ”It’s just one of those games, a freak game.”

Austin Jackson drove in four runs as the Tigers finished with a season-high 26 hits. Dirks, who is hitting .410 against Kansas City this season, scored four times.

”The hits just fell tonight,” Dirks said. ”That’s baseball. When I hit it, it just went in the holes.”

The Tigers’ rout came after they were clubbed 20-4 at Boston in their previous game.

”I don’t even remember that game,” Dirks said. ”In baseball if you win a game by one run or 20 runs, it only counts as one game.”

But Dirks, who went to Wichita State, won’t forget this one. Dirks’ parents were at the game.

”That was nice,” he said.

Infante had run-scoring singles in the second, fourth and seventh innings and a three-run double in the fifth.

It was more than enough support for Anibal Sanchez (13-7), who allowed one run in seven innings while lowering his AL-best ERA to 2.61.

”Sanchez, in my opinion, shut their offense down and that was the key to the game,” Leyland said.

Sparked by the return of Miguel Cabrera, every Detroit starter had a hit and scored a run in the first five innings. The Tigers sent 10 men to the plate in the second and fourth, scoring five times in each frame.

Cabrera, who did not play in four of the previous five games because of an abdominal strain, went 1 for 2 with an RBI and walked twice before being replaced by Danny Worth in the sixth inning.

”I wanted to get him out an inning earlier, but he wanted one more at-bat,” Leyland said. ”So I let hit him again and got him out of there, but we ended up getting a lot of guys out there to give them a little blow. That worked out good.”

Much of Detroit’s onslaught came against James Shields, who was knocked out in the fourth inning in one of the worst starts of his career.

”I actually went back and looked at the video, and a lot of my pitches they were hitting were below the strike zone,” Shields said. ”That’s a good hitting team over there, and I didn’t do my job tonight. You’ve got to move forward, but it was a terrible job by me.”

Jackson had a two-run double in the second and a two-run single in the fourth. The four RBIs matched his career high.

Shields (10-9), who was 4-0 in his previous five starts, was charged with 10 runs and 14 hits in 3 2-3 innings in his shortest start of the season. The runs and hits matched career-worst totals for the right-hander.

The last team to collect 14 hits against Shields was the Tigers on June 28, 2012, in 7 2-3 innings.

Billy Butler drove in the first Royals run with a single in the first for his sixth straight hit. David Lough doubled and scored on Jarrod Dyson’s sacrifice fly in the ninth for the other Kansas City run.

”A loss is a loss,” said Alex Gordon, who doubled in the first. ”That’s the way you’ve got to look at it. Turn the page.”

— Associated Press —

Joe Kelly acted like an ace who’s been here before, oblivious to the pennant race and working out of jams. The St. Louis Cardinals rediscovered their offense, too.

Carlos Beltran had RBIs his first two at-bats to help chase A.J. Burnett early and Kelly beat the Pittsburgh Pirates for the third straight time in a 12-8 rout Friday night that pulled the Cardinals within a half-game of the NL Central leaders.

”You’ve just got to make pitches when you need to,” Kelly said. ”I just tried to battle … and make pitches when I needed to.”

Burnett (7-10) gave up five runs in three innings, his shortest outing of the year, and the Cardinals opened a seven-run seventh with nine straight hits off three relievers including Yadier Molina’s three-run homer off Bryan Morris. The Pirates have lost two straight, both blowouts, and remain a win shy of clinching their first winning season since 1992.

”I felt like I could have stayed out there longer and kept us in it, but that’s not my choice, not my decision,” Burnett said. ”But you’ve got to take one positive from tonight and that’s this team and what they did to the final out.”

Manager Clint Hurdle said the 82nd win will probably mean most to Neil Walker ”growing up a Pittsburgh kid.”

”He had some emotion the other night and there’s some guys on the coaching staff, but I mean, it’s part of the game,” Hurdle added. ”It’s a mile marker on the road.”

Kelly (8-3) has been the stopper lately for a struggling rotation, winning five straight starts. He’s 8-0 with a 2.10 ERA in 11 appearances since getting the fifth spot in late June and then waiting 14 days because of days off in the schedule to make that start.

Leadoff man Matt Carpenter tripled and doubled to tie Albert Pujols’ season record of 98 hits in 2008 at 8-year-old Busch Stadium, also his major league high 55th multihit game. Jon Jay, coming off a 1-for-20 trip, had three hits and three RBIs.

”Wow, I wasn’t aware of that,” Carpenter said. ”That’s pretty cool. I thought we just did a real good job of grinding out at-bats and being aggressive in the strike zone.

”They made some mistakes over the plate and we did a real good job of taking advantage.”

The Pirates have scored two runs in 18 innings against Kelly. The only thing the right-hander hasn’t done is save the bullpen, working six innings in each of his last five starts with a season best of 6 1-3 innings.

Pittsburgh had five baserunners and no runs the first two innings and stranded 10 runners in six innings against Kelly, who allowed one run and eight hits. Pedro Alvarez, who grounded out with the bases loaded to end the first, had an RBI single in the fifth.

The Cardinals led 12-1 after seven innings but needed Edward Mujica to get the final out for his 36th save in 39 chances. Josh Harrison hit a two-run pinch-hit homer off Jake Westbrook in a four-run eighth and Jose Tabata hit a two-run double off Carlos Martinez in a three-run ninth before Harrison flied out with two men on to end a game that lasted 3 hours and 47 minutes.

The Cardinals rebounded from a 2-5 trip in which they scored two or fewer runs five times, one of them against Burnett in a 7-1 loss Aug. 31. Burnett had been 3-0 with a 2.59 ERA in five starts against the Cardinals, but facing them in consecutive starts led to his fastest exit since he allowed 12 earned runs in 2 2-3 innings, including two homers and seven RBIs by Beltran, in a 12-3 loss May 2, 2012, also in St. Louis.

”I don’t make pitches here or I haven’t,” Burnett said. ”I will, I will. When I missed tonight, I missed middle.”

Carpenter tripled to open a three-run third and Jay, Matt Holliday and Beltran followed with RBI doubles for a 5-0 lead. The Cardinals started fast in the first with a walk and two singles the first four at-bats.

”I think we could all tell early on his command wasn’t really used to what we’re used to seeing from him,” Carpenter said of Burnett.

The first four hitters in the Cardinals order totaled 10 hits and eight RBIs.

— Associated Press —