Adam Wainwright earned his NL-leading 15th win with his fifth complete game and had a key sacrifice fly to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Friday night.

Matt Holliday’s 432-foot home run off Kris Medlen (10-12) snapped a sixth-inning tie for St. Louis, which took the first two games of a four-game set against the NL East leaders.

Having already thrown 101 pitches, Wainwright was allowed to bat with the one out and the bases loaded in the seventh inning and hit a long sacrifice fly off Scott Downs for his third RBI of the season to make it 3-1. He then retired the side in order in the eighth.

Medlen singled to lead off the sixth and scored on Freddie Freeman’s second hit of the game and retired 12 in a row at one point. But he allowed Holliday’s 17th homer on a liner deep into the left field stands. He’s lost his last two times out, including a relief appearance in a 15-inning game.

The Cardinals lost three in a row at Atlanta to start a seven-game losing streak in late July that knocked them out of the Central lead and entered the night a game behind Pittsburgh. Wainwright (15-7) took one of the losses in that series, but the Brunswick, Ga., native is 7-2 against the Braves.

Wainwright allowed a run on six hits with no walks and nine strikeouts, passing injured teammate Chris Carpenter for fourth on the franchise career list, and he has 16 career complete games. He’s worked seven or more innings seven straight starts and retired 10 in a row at one point.

He even got an assist from his manager. Mike Matheny, a former four-time Gold Glove catcher, took the warmup tosses from Wainwright before the ninth.

Yadier Molina had three hits with a pair of doubles to raise his NL-leading average to .337, five points ahead of the Braves’ Chris Johnson, who had a pair of singles.

Molina doubled and Jon Jay singled to open the seventh and chase Medlen. Downs got a brief reprieve earlier in the inning when a wild pitch ricocheted back to catcher Brian McCann.

The Braves’ Justin Upton was ejected in the sixth for arguing with home plate umpire Paul Nauert after a groundout, perhaps about a called third strike the previous at-bat.

— Associated Press —

Joe Kelly pitched six effective innings, Matt Holliday broke out of a slump with two doubles and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-2 on Thursday night.

David Freese drove in two runs as St. Louis won for the fifth time in six games.

The NL East-leading Braves played without Jason Heyward, who is out with a broken right jaw after he was beaned during Wednesday’s 4-1 win at the New York Mets. The outfielder had surgery on Thursday in Atlanta and could miss the rest of the regular season.

Justin Upton hit his 24th homer, but the Braves lost for the second time in three games at the start of a six-game trip. Atlanta had won eight of its last nine regular-season games against St. Louis.

Kelly (5-3) allowed two runs and seven hits while improving to 5-0 with a 1.79 ERA in his last seven starts. St. Louis improved to 7-1 in Kelly’s eight starts since he rejoined the rotation on July 6.

Holliday went 2 for 3 and drove in a run, matching the amount of hits he had during a 2-for-24 slide over his previous six games. He doubled and scored in the fourth, then capped St. Louis’ three-run fourth with an RBI double that made it 4-2.

Freese had a run-scoring groundout in the fourth and an RBI single in the seventh.

Paul Maholm (9-10) came off the disabled list and allowed five runs, four earned, and five hits in 5 1-3 innings for Atlanta. It was the first game for the left-hander since he left a July 20 start at the Chicago White Sox with a bruised left wrist.

Maholm helped himself with a leadoff single in the fifth. Upton then hit a one-out drive to center for his eighth homer this month, giving Atlanta a 2-1 lead.

St. Louis went back in front in the bottom half on consecutive run-scoring doubles by Matt Carpenter, Carlos Beltran and Holliday. Pete Kozma sparked the big inning with a one-out walk.

— Associated Press —

Jake Westbrook didn’t last long enough to earn the victory on Wednesday, but the light-hitting St. Louis pitcher used his bat to spark a six-run, second-inning outburst that led to a Cardinals win over the Milwaukee win.

The Cardinals jumped out to a seven-run lead and then held on for an 8-6 victory.

Westbrook, who entered the game hitting only .167 with two RBIs this season, smacked a bases-loaded double into the left-center field gap that scored two runs, starting an onslaught that propelled the Cardinals a 7-0 lead.

”I’m happy to be able to contribute in that sense, especially with the bases loaded and nobody out and to put a good swing on the ball,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook didn’t fare as well on the mound, however. He fell one out short of earning this eighth win of the year, giving up four earned runs and nine hits in 4 2-3 innings. He walked one and struck out one during a 75-pitch outing.

In his previous start on Aug. 16, when he threw a career-high 124 pitches, Westbrook gave up six earned runs in 6 2-3 innings.

”I still felt like I pitched a lot better than I have been in terms of throwing strikes and getting ahead of guys,” Westbrook said. ”I actually made some good pitches that they put some good swings on. Getting two quick outs in the fifth and not being able to finish it off is pretty frustrating for me.

”The bullpen came in and picked me up and finished it off, and the offense was great.”

Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig hit towering home runs in the game-changing second inning. Matt Holliday also homered later in the game and Shane Robinson had three hits for the Cardinals, who remain close behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Central race.

”It was a big win,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”Those are the ones you’ve got to find a way to win, when you put that kind of offensive production up early.”

After taking a one-run lead in the first inning on a double by Craig, the Cardinals torched Brewers starter Tom Gorzelanny (3-5) in the second.

”You make mistakes and you pay for them, especially against good-hitting teams,” Gorzelanny said. ”I left balls over the middle, (and made) bad pitch selection.”

Following Matt Carpenter’s sacrifice fly, Beltran launched a two-run shot that caromed off the center-field scoreboard. With two out, Craig hit a solo homer to right-center.

”We are happy that we were able to win the series,” Beltran said. ”That is basically what is important for us right now.”

The Brewers cut into the lead in the third on a three-run homer by Aramis Ramirez, and then added two runs in the fifth.

Juan Francisco broke out of an 0-for-15 slump, during which he struck out 10 times, with a run-scoring single. Sean Halton drove in another run with a hit, cutting the deficit to 7-5 and chasing Westbrook.

”(Westbrook) started out pretty good, but for whatever reason they were finding the good part of the bat and finding holes,” Matheny said.

Kevin Siegrist struck out pinch-hitter Jeff Bianchi with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning. Siegrist (2-1) recorded two outs to notch the victory. Four Cardinals relievers held the Brewers to one run over the final 5 1-3 innings to preserve the win.

Holliday’s solo home run in the ninth extended the lead to 8-5.

Edward Mujica earned his 33rd save in 35 attempts despite giving up a long solo home run to Logan Schafer with one out in the ninth.

Gorzelanny surrendered seven runs and 10 hits in 3 2-3 innings. He walked one and struck out five.

”He didn’t command the ball that well early and then they also hit some pretty good pitches. We know they are a good hitting club, and when you don’t hit your spots, they are going to put a good swing on it,” Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said.

Khris Davis had a career-best three hits for Milwaukee.

”He keeps showing he can hang in there. He works the count well, which I really like,” Roenicke said. ”He’s an aggressive swinger, but he’s not a hacker. He doesn’t just go up there and swing at everything. He swings at the pitch he wants to swing at.”

— Associated Press —

Kyle Lohse finally beat the St. Louis Cardinals, and the win didn’t come that easily.

Lohse beat the Cardinals in his fourth try this season and Sean Halton knocked in a career-high three runs to help the Milwaukee Brewers beat St. Louis 6-3 Tuesday night.

”They made me work for it,” he said after improving to 3-5 in nine outings overall against his former team. ”I felt like I threw a lot of really good pitches and they kept battling them off, fouling them off, taking close ones.”

Lohse had his best major league season in 2012 when he went 16-3 with a 2.88 ERA in 33 starts with St. Louis. The Cardinals did not try to re-sign him and he became a free agent.

Lohse said the win was just like any other even if it snapped a five-game losing streak against the Cardinals.

”I don’t put any more emphasis on any one game over the other,” he said. ”I went out there and tried to do what I’d been doing.”

Lohse left after six innings with the Brewers leading 6-3. He earned his team-leading 17th quality start, including six in his last seven. He struck out four, walked two and allowed six hits and three runs, two coming on Yadier Molina’s two-run homer in the fourth. Molina doubled and scored in the second on Matt Adams’ single.

”Yadi hit a pretty pitch for a homer, but that’s what he does,” Lohse said.

John Axford and Brandon Kintzler each pitched a scoreless inning, and Jim Henderson pitched the ninth for his 19th save in 22 chances.

The Cardinals were ahead 3-0 when the Brewers fought back with a five-run fourth that put Lohse back in line for the victory.

”The team did a great job battling back after I put us in a hole,” he said. ”Other than that, doesn’t mean any more beating them.”

Lance Lynn (13-7) got roughed up in the fourth, highlighted by Halton’s two-run single with the bases loaded.

Milwaukee’s first six batters in the frame reached, loading the bases twice with no outs. Scooter Gennett drove in the first run with a single. After Aramis Ramirez singled and Khris Davis reached on Lynn’s fielding error, Halton drove them in with a line drive to center that doubled his season RBI total. Logan Schafer followed with an RBI single and Norichika Aoki tacked on the last run with a sacrifice fly.

”We stacked together a bunch of hits (Monday), and they did the exact same thing,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”It is just a matter of stopping it when it gets going. We did the same thing yesterday. We found holes and created a rally.”

Kolten Wong, who had his first two major league hits Monday night, continued getting on base for St. Louis. He went 3 for 5 with two singles and a double. The team’s No. 1. pick in the 2011 draft joined the Cardinals from Triple-A Memphis Friday night in Chicago.

”It was just one of those innings where things are dropping, not going our way,” he said. ”Unfortunately, they scored a majority of their runs in that inning.”

Halton set a career mark in the fifth with his third RBI of the game. Davis singled, stole second and scored on Halton’s grounder into center.

Carlos Beltran singled and scored on Molina’s 10th home run of the season.

Adams beat the Brewers’ defensive shift in the second inning and knocked in Molina with the Cardinals’ first run. Adams blooped a single over the head of shortstop Jean Segura, positioned on the right side of second base. Molina was on with a double over the head of center fielder Schafer. The ball flicked off Schafer’s glove and rolled to the wall.

The Brewers have almost no chance at the playoffs and are resigned to playing the role of spoiler.

”I know we have a stretch here where we’re playing a lot of teams that are contending for playoff spots,” Lohse said. ”I don’t care who it is. Feels good to kind of hurt teams’ chances.”

— Associated Press —

Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright was back in charge Sunday.

Wainwright struck out 11 and allowed one run through seven innings, and Jon Jay drove in four runs with a homer and double to lead St. Louis to a 6-1 win over the Chicago Cubs.

Matt Carpenter singled in two runs in the third to help back Wainwright (14-7), who allowed just five hits and one walk after going 0-2 in his previous four starts.

”It’s as good as he’s been all season,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. ”He came out in the first and established all his pitches, had great life.

”His curveball was as sharp as we’ve seen it. That made the difference, it set the tone.”

Wainwright hadn’t won since July 21 at home against San Diego and had allowed 14 runs in 28 innings during the span.

On Sunday, he faced only one batter over the minimum through the first five innings and only 26 through seven innings. He also beat the Cubs for the first time since April 13, 2012, a span of six starts.

”I just went out there in attack mode,” Wainwright said, ”went out there with the right philosophy in understanding of who I was as a pitcher and just made pitches.

”I wanted to let everybody on the field know that I was in charge out there, so to speak. It’s a team over there that’s given me trouble over the last few years.”

St. Louis relievers Kevin Siegrist and Trevor Rosenthal combined to pitch a scoreless eighth and ninth.

One of Wainwright’s strikeouts led to Cubs manager Dale Sveum and reliever James Russell being ejected from the game in the bottom of the seventh.

St. Louis was already ahead 6-1 following Jay’s three-run homer off Russell in the top of the inning.

Wainwright allowed singles to Nate Schierholtz and Welington Castillo to open the bottom half, but the next batter, Donnie Murphy, was called out on a check swing.

Sveum disputed the call with plate umpire Phil Cuzzi from the dugout, then came onto the field to continue the argument following the ejection. Russell was tossed by third base umpire Tom Hallion.

”That’s easily the worst checked-swing call I’ve ever seen. Sveum said. That’s why the other umpires are there, to give him help.”

Junior Lake drove in the Cubs’ run with a double in the sixth.

Chicago starter Edwin Jackson (7-13) allowed three runs, but only one earned, through six innings. He walked four and struck out three.

Jackson has been stronger in the second half after an 1-8 start. He got little support on Sunday and his defense didn’t help when Lake dropped a fly ball in center field for an error in the Cardinals’ three-run second inning.

”In pitching, things are going to happen,” Jackson said. ”It was one of those things you try to battle down and do damage control.

”It definitely could have been a lot worse. You just try to keep them within striking distance.”

The Cubs have scored just 12 runs in their past eight games at Wrigley Field and have been shut out in five of those contests.

St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina had two doubles in his third game back after two weeks on the disabled list.

Starlin Castro was back in the Cubs lineup a day after being pulled for making a mistake the day before, and had an infield single. Manager Dale Sveum said Castro had atoned for his mistake.

On Saturday, the shortstop dawdled after catching a popup in shallow left field, allowing a run to score and Sveum pulled Castro from the game.

Carpenter’s single with two outs and the bases loaded drove in two runs as the Cardinals jumped ahead 3-0 in the second.

With one out, Molina and Jay bounced back-to-back doubles just inside third base to make it 1-0.

Rookie Kolten Wong’s deep fly ticked off Lake’s glove for an error, putting Wong on second and Jay on third. Following an intentional walk to Daniel Descalso and fly out by Wainwright, Carpenter’s hit up the middle drove in Jay and Wong.

The Cubs cut it to 3-1 in the sixth. David Dejesus, who had walked with two outs, scored on Lake’s double to the gap.

Jay’s three-run homer in the seventh off Russell, the second of four Chicago relievers, put the game away.

— Associated Presss —

The Cardinals’ Yadier Molina is regaining his comfort zone after returning from the disabled list – and showed it by inflicting some pain on the Cubs.

Molina hit a two-run homer, Joe Kelly threw six scoreless innings and St. Louis beat Chicago 4-0 Saturday.

Molina also had a double in his second game since coming off the disabled list Thursday from a sprained right knee.

”Today, I feel comfortable,” Molina said. ”Everything went well.”

Molina homered off Travis Wood for a 4-0 lead in the sixth after Matt Holliday was hit by a pitch. Molina’s ninth homer was his first hit in eight at-bats since he came off the disabled list.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny also liked how Molina made a strong throw after handling a tough bunt and how he guided Kelly.

”We’re happy he’s here,” Matheny said.

Kelly (4-3) hasn’t lost since joining the Cardinals rotation as the fifth starter on July 6. He allowed four hits, struck out six and walked three.

”He’s stepped up and really taken advantage of it,” Matheny said ”You can tell he can’t wait to get the ball. When he goes out there with that kind of confidence it kind of transfers over to everybody else.

And he’s getting better.

”We’re still real impressed with how he’s using his secondary pitches in tough counts. He’s staying out of the middle of the plate. He’s making good pitches when he has to. He’s working ahead, all the things we hope our starters will do.”

Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro was pulled shortly after making a mental mistake that let the Cardinals score in the fifth.

The Cardinals led 1-0 and had the bases loaded with one out when Castro caught a popup by Matt Carpenter in short left field. Castro put his head down and hesitated to throw home. Jon Jay scored from third base and the other runners advanced.

”I think good teams constantly find ways to put pressure on the defense, and Jon is such a heads-up player,” Matheny said. ”He took two hard steps and saw he had an opportunity.”

Cubs manager Dale Sveum said something to Castro when he reached the dugout. Donnie Murphy switched from third base to shortstop to replace Castro in the sixth, and Cody Ransom came off the bench to play third.

Sveum said there is no explanation for Castro’s mistake. He was unsure if Castro would play Sunday.

”I know the outs and everything,” Castro said. ”I just put my head down, like a mental mistake. I don’t want to say any excuse for that.

”It’s my mistake and that’s why I pay for that. That’s why I got taken out of the game. I feel really, really bad that happened.”

Wood (7-10) retired the first nine St. Louis batters. He gave up four runs and four hits in 5 1-3 innings.

Carpenter hit a leadoff double in the fourth and scored on a double by Carlos Beltran for a 1-0 lead.

A trio of St. Louis relievers combined to allow one hit. Both teams finished with five hits.

The Cubs have lost 14 of their last 19 games. They have been shut out in five of their last seven at Wrigley Field.

”You’ve got to give credit to Kelly. That’s pretty overpowering stuff,” Sveum said.

— Associated Presss —

Jake Arrieta threw seven shutout innings and Nate Schierholtz drove in three runs to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 7-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

Arrieta (1-0) allowed two hits and struck out seven for his first win with the Cubs.

The hard-throwing right-hander was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in a July 2 trade.

Before Friday, his only other day on the Cubs’ roster was as the 26th man for a doubleheader against Milwaukee on July 30.

The Cubs snapped a four-game losing streak with the win and are 7-7 this season against the Cardinals. St. Louis has dropped six of nine overall.

The Cubs had been shut out in four of their past five home games – a streak dating back to Aug. 3.

Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook (7-8) walked the first three batters he faced in the bottom of the first inning.

Schierholtz, the cleanup hitter, hit a two-run single to center to put the Cubs.

After Welington Castillo grounded into a double play, Donnie Murphy followed with a run-scoring single to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

Arrieta sailed through the Cardinals lineup. After allowing a single to Carlos Beltran in the second, he got Kolten Wong to ground into a double play in his major league debut.

Those two outs started a streak of 13 straight outs (including five strikeouts) until he walked Westbrook with one in the sixth.

The next batter, Matt Carpenter, also walked to give the Cardinals their first threat of the game, but Jon Jay grounded into a fielder’s choice and Matt Holiday struck out looking to end the inning.

The Cubs added a run in the fifth on Schierholtz’s sacrifice fly and then scored two more in the sixth on a run-scoring double by Darwin Barney and a safety squeeze bunt by Arrieta.

The final run in the seventh scored on a wild pitch.

— Associated Press —

Just a few days ago, the St. Louis Cardinals had no wins when trailing after eight innings and just one extra-inning victory.

They certainly showed the Pittsburgh Pirates they can go the extra mile.

”We did a good job of bouncing back,” said Matt Holliday, who hit a game-ending RBI single in the 12th inning of St. Louis’ 6-5 victory over Pittsburgh on Thursday. ”Winning this game could be very important for us.”

Matt Carpenter had four hits and scored the winning run in the Cardinals’ second extra-inning triumph over the NL Central leaders in three days.

”Anytime having a walk-off win, it’s a big deal,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”Jumping on it again it today is just the resiliency of this club.

”You could sense it on the bench. The guys weren’t going to give in, weren’t going to stop pushing.”

The Cardinals took two of three in the series to pull within two games of the sagging Pirates, who have dropped five of six. St. Louis won 4-3 in 14 innings in the opener on Tuesday night.

”We had a number of guys that had opportunities,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. ”The great thing about what we’re going through is the challenge and opportunities we’re all getting.

”It’s playoff atmosphere baseball.”

The Cardinals lost the division lead when they dropped four of five in Pittsburgh from July 29-Aug. 1.

Rookie Kevin Siegrist (1-1), St. Louis’ seventh pitcher, struck out two in a perfect 12th against the heart of the order.

Russell Martin and Clint Barmes homered for Pittsburgh, which blew a 4-0 lead in one inning. Jose Tabata had three straight hits after entering as a pinch hitter.

Carpenter sparked the winning rally with a one-out walk. He went to third on Jon Jay’s single before Holliday grounded a single up the middle off Bryan Morris (5-6).

Carpenter, the Cardinals’ leadoff man, leads the National League with 48 multihit games and 40 doubles. He entered with league-leading averages of .366 at home and .367 in day games.

Holliday also had an RBI double and is batting .452 during a 12-game hitting streak.

Martin hit a tying leadoff drive off Trevor Rosenthal in the eighth, handing the setup man his second blown save of St. Louis’ 4-6 homestand.

The Pirates hit for the cycle against Lance Lynn in a four-run fifth that featured rookie Andrew Lambo’s first hit and RBI on a double and Barmes’ two-run homer. The Cardinals responded by knocking out A.J. Burnett with five runs in the bottom half on a two-run single by Daniel Descalso and RBIs in consecutive at-bats from Carpenter, Jon Jay and Holliday.

”As good as it looked early, it’s never easy against this group,” Burnett said. ”They figured me out early.”

Both managers put a heavy stamp on the game. Hurdle hit for two regulars in the sixth and emptied his bench, and Matheny used three relievers in the sixth and seventh.

St. Louis activated All-Star catcher Yadier Molina from the 15-day disabled list, and he announced his presence almost immediately. He threw out Starling Marte trying to steal third to end the first.

— Associated Press —

Francisco Liriano was dominant coming off the worst outing of his career and the Pittsburgh Pirates got home runs from Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones in a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night.

The win snapped a season-worst four-game losing streak and gave Pittsburgh a three-game lead in the NL Central.

The Pirates had a five-run cushion after four innings against rookie Shelby Miller, who didn’t miss a turn five days after getting drilled on the elbow and lasting just two pitches against the Dodgers. They’re 8-4 against the Cardinals heading into the series finale matching A.J. Burnett and Lance Lynn.

Pittsburgh totaled just 10 runs during the losing streak and won in 2 hours, 30 minutes one night after losing 4-3 in 14 innings in a game that lasted 4:55.

Liriano (13-5) allowed four hits with six strikeouts and needed just 94 pitches to beat the Cardinals for the second time this year. He is 3-0 in his career against St. Louis. His last time out, the lefty was punished for 10 runs in 2 1-3 innings at Colorado.

Matt Carpenter doubled and eventually scored on a groundout by Carlos Beltran in the ninth to snap Liriano’s shutout bid. He settled for his second complete game of the year.

Alvarez hit his 29th homer an estimated 440 feet to straightaway center leading off the second against Miller (11-8), and with one out Jones lined his 11th over the right field wall estimated at 392 feet. Starling Marte’s two-run double capped a three-run fourth, with two of the runs unearned due to fielding error by third baseman David Freese.

Miller gave up two homers for the fourth time and has lost all of those starts, twice against Pittsburgh. In six innings, he gave up five runs, three earned, on eight hits.

Liriano retired the side in order six times, twice with the help of double plays. A third double play helped him escape without damage in the second when the Cardinals got two of their hits.

In the three starts prior to his clunker at Colorado, Liriano allowed one earned run over 21 2-3 innings in winning three straight starts.

The Cardinals are 3-6 with one game to go on a 10-game homestand that began with series losses to the Cubs and Dodgers.

— Associated Press —

For the first time in a while, the St. Louis Cardinals had good reason to use their closer. After such a long wait between pressure situations, Edward Mujica did not let anybody down.

Mujica converted his first save chance in 18 games, working the last two innings in an 8-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs that ended a four-game losing streak and avoided a sweep on Sunday.

”All the time it’s about consistency,” Mujica said. ”Sometimes days off are pretty good for pitchers. For my arm. Everybody knows we’re going to be out of this rough time.”

Pete Kozma singled home the tiebreaking run in the sixth. Matt Carpenter and Allen Craig each had three hits and drove in a run. Jon Jay and David Freese both drove in two runs, though they only had one hit between them.

”That was a great at-bat by Pete, and couldn’t have come at a better time,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”I thought the guys did a real good job of situational hitting, getting the runs in when they had money on the table.”

Mujica earned his 31st save in 33 chances and first since July 25 against the Phillies, overcoming Starlin Castro’s leadoff double in the eighth with just a one-run cushion. Then he retired the final five in a row in an outing that matched his longest of the year.

The right-hander had been anticipating that after setup man Trevor Rosenthal threw 33 pitches and gave up the tying and go-ahead runs in two-thirds of an inning in a 6-5 loss.

”We had that in mind, didn’t necessarily commit to that,” Matheny said. ”We knew that would be an option to go for ‘Chief’ for two.”

Randy Choate (2-1) faced one batter, getting leadoff man David DeJesus to pop out with two men on to end the sixth after the Cubs had tied it at 4 on RBI singles by Castro and Darwin Barney off Seth Maness.

Barney, like Kozma an eighth-place hitter, had two RBI singles. He’s batting .215 overall but has a .317 average against St. Louis with two homers and 10 RBIs.

”He battles up there and it’s hard to strike him out and he’s going to give you an at-bat all the time,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. ”He’s a little battler.”

Tony Cruz doubled with two outs in the sixth off Blake Parker (1-2) and scored easily on Kozma’s single. Parker was the winner Saturday with an inning of relief.

Jay added a sacrifice fly in the seventh off Hector Rondon and the Cardinals got RBIs from Carpenter and Craig in the eighth off Michael Bowden.

The Cardinals combined two singles, a walk, a steal and a sacrifice fly off Edwin Jackson in a three-run first. Matt Holliday had one of the RBIs plus a steal off Jackson’s slow move to the plate, before Jackson finally retaliated by picking off Jay.

Holliday handed the Cubs an unearned run in the third when he camped under Junior Lake’s two-out high fly to medium left but then whiffed on the catch and DeJesus scored from first.

The Cubs settled for their first series win in St. Louis since a three-game sweep Sept. 13-15, 2010. They’d been 0-6-1 the previous seven series, and were trying for a three-game sweep.

”You can take two out of three here it’s definitely a good thing,” Barney said. ”It’s tough to win a series here. They play so well at home and Allen Craig is unbelievable with runners in scoring position.”

— Associated Press —