Alfonso Soriano hit a game-ending RBI single in the 10th inning, and the Chicago Cubs beat St. Louis 3-2 on Wednesday night, ending the Cardinals’ run of 13 consecutive winning series.

Tony Campana sparked the winning rally with a one-out single off Fernando Salas (0-1). Campana then stole second in a close call that led to the first ejection for Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.

After Starlin Castro struck out, Bryan LaHair was walked intentionally before Soriano hit a full-count pitch off second baseman Tyler Greene and into the outfield. Campana scored easily to give the Cubs their second consecutive dramatic victory against the Cardinals

James Russell (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning to get the win.

Chicago led 1-0 before Matt Holliday hit a two-run homer off Carlos Marmol with two out in the eighth inning. LaHair then tied it with a leadoff drive off Marc Rzepczynski in the ninth.

The Cubs also beat the Cardinals 3-2 on Monday night on Joe Mather’s game-ending, two-run single. They will go for the three-game sweep Wednesday afternoon.

St. Louis won its last seven series in the regular season last year, then stormed through the playoffs to the World Series title. It opened this season with six more series wins before running into the slumping Cubs, who had dropped seven of eight before the Cards came to town.

It was St. Louis’ first series loss since it dropped two of three against Cincinnati from Sept. 2-4. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 2002 Braves were the last team to put together a 13-series streak.

The Cardinals had just four hits before Holliday drove a 2-2 pitch over the wall in center for his fourth homer. Rafael Furcal set up the go-ahead drive with a one-out walk against Rafael Dolis, who retired Skip Schumaker before first-year manager Dale Sveum went to his closer with Holliday coming to the plate.

Carlos Beltran then walked and move to third on Marmol’s errant pickoff attempt before David Freese flied out to end the inning. The erratic closer was jeered by the Wrigley Field crowd of 38,894 as he made his way to the dugout.

Chicago nearly wasted a terrific outing by Jeff Samardzija, who struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings. The right-hander yielded just four hits and two walks in his second start against Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals in 11 days.

Samardzija pitched five shaky innings at St. Louis on April 13, but the Cubs roughed up Wainwright in a 9-5 victory.

This one was much different.

Wainwright allowed one run and six hits over six innings in his best start since he had elbow-ligament replacement surgery last February, sidelining him for the 2011 season. The 6-foot-7 right-hander struck out seven and walked one, but remained winless in four starts this year.

Chicago grabbed the lead in the first. David DeJesus drove a leadoff double into the right-field corner and advanced on Tony Campana’s sacrifice. Starlin Castro then lofted a fly ball to right, leading to a disputed call at home.

Beltran settled under Castro’s ball and made a strong throw to the first-base side, forcing Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina to dive across the plate with his glove. Molina was right there as DeJesus stuck his left arm out while sliding past home on the dugout side, drawing a safe call from umpire Chris Conroy.

DeJesus clapped his hands and scurried back to the dugout as Molina popped up and began arguing with Conroy. Matheny popped out of the dugout and got between Molina and Conroy before continuing the argument with the umpire. Looking at the TV replays, it was unclear whether DeJesus ever touched home, but Matheny eventually left the field after a short argument.

It was a busy night for Molina, who had two hits, made a rare throwing error and picked DeJesus off second after a leadoff double in the fifth.

The Cubs had a chance to add to their lead in the fourth, putting runners on second and third with no outs. But Wainwright wiggled out of the jam, showing the moxie that made him one of baseball’s best pitchers before the elbow injury.

Ian Stewart and Darwin Barney struck out swinging, the latter on three pitches, before Wainwright issued an intentional walk to Geovany Soto. Samardzija then popped out to end the inning.

— Associated Press —

Joe Mather was just happy to help the Cubs get a win. Beating his former teammates was pretty sweet, too.

Mather’s two-run single with two outs in the ninth inning rallied Chicago to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

“It just feels good,” Mather said. “The whole atmosphere in the stadium and in the clubhouse, in the dugout, everybody was just excited.”

Hard-throwing closer Jason Motte (1-1) had the Cubs down to their final strike when Mather, a former Cardinal, grounded a 2-2 slider up the middle, driving in Bryan LaHair and Geovany Soto.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t (extra satisfying),” Mather said. “I have a lot of good friends over there. It does feel good. When it comes down to it, ultimately we won a big-league game and the self-satisfaction is secondary.”

While Mather got the winning hit, LaHair’s 12-pitch battle with Motte may have been the game’s key at-bat. After the count went full, LaHair fouled off six straight pitches before Motte missed with a fastball.

“I just don’t have any fear,” LaHair said about his patient approach. “That kind of situation, you have to just kind of relax and just breathe. Let the anxiety go.”

Motte then walked Soto, but said it wasn’t a matter of LaHair wearing him down.

“No, I’m out there still trying to make pitches,” Motte said. “I made some really good pitches, he just did a good job of fouling them off and keeping himself in the at-bat.”

Steve Clevenger’s grounder moved the runners up to set the plate for Mather, who was drafted by the Cardinals in 2001 and spent 10 seasons in the organization.

Mather fell behind 0-2 and angrily stalked out of the batter’s box after taking the second strike. He then took two pitches off the plate before lacing the game-ending single.

The hit made a winner of reliever Rafael Dolis (1-1), though for seven-plus innings the starters were the story of the game.

Jaime Garcia appeared to have outpitched Matt Garza as he threw just 85 pitches before departing with two outs in the eighth, striking out just four batters and walking one.

“That was one hell of a game,” Garza said. “We came up big at the end. That’s awesome.”

Garza held St. Louis to two runs in seven innings, and has allowed three earned runs or fewer in his last 14 home starts, the longest streak by a Cubs pitcher since Mark Prior had 16 in a row over the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

St. Louis grabbed the lead in the fourth after Skip Schumaker led off with an infield single and went to third on Matt Holliday’s double down the left-field line. Schumaker scored on Carlos Beltran’s groundout, and Holliday scored on Yadier Molina’s sacrifice fly.

Garcia gave up a first-inning run when Alfonso Soriano’s sacrifice fly scored Darwin Barney, but he limited Chicago to just four hits over his final 6 2/3 innings. He was aided by double plays in the fifth and sixth.

“(Garcia) was terrific,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “You look at the run early on, and that was from two infield hits. Whenever he did get in a little spot, he got that extra movement, double plays.”

Darwin Barney singled twice, walked, and scored the Cubs’ only run. Castro legged out an infield single in the first, increasing his hitting streak to 11 games. He’s reached base in 56 of his last 57 games.

The Cubs went homerless for the ninth straight game, their longest drought since June 30 to July 13, 2007. Chicago is last in the majors with just five homers on the season, but on Monday, singles were enough.

“These are the kind of things you have to build on,” LaHair said.

— Associated Press —

The way Kyle Lohse is pitching at the moment, the St. Louis right-hander doesn’t need much run support to win.

The same goes for Pittsburgh’s Erik Bedard.

Only Lohse, however, has the luxury of playing on the team with the National League’s best offense. It made all the difference Sunday.

Lohse scattered six hits while pitching into the eighth inning to lead the Cardinals past the Pirates 5-1.

David Freese had a two-run single for the St. Louis and Rafael Furcal had three hits as the Cardinals extended their strong start behind another superb outing from Lohse (3-0), who struck out five without issuing a walk even though his ERA actually ticked up from 0.89 to 0.99.

“Man he’s unreal,” Freese said of Lohse. “I’ve heard other guys say that when he hits his spots, he’s one of the toughest in the game to string some hits together. And he’s showing it, for sure.”

So is Bedard, who was again undone by a lack of run support.

The left-hander gave up three runs on six hits, walking four and striking out seven in seven innings but it wasn’t enough to keep his record from calling to 0-4. The Pirates have scored three times with Bedard on the mound this season.

“All you can do is battle,” Bedard said. “Runs will come and right now they’re just not coming. You keep doing what you can and put zeroes up there.”

Lohse improved to 8-2 in his career against Pittsburgh, having his way with baseball’s worst offense. His only mistake came in the eighth, when Michael McKenry led off with a double and scored on Casey McGehee’s pinch-hit single to trim St. Louis’ lead to 3-1.

Mitchell Boggs came on in relief and quickly shut the door. Nate McLouth flied to left and Boggs held onto Jose Tabata’s sharp grounder back to the mound to start an inning-ending double play.

The Cardinals tacked on two runs in the ninth off Evan Meek for the final margin.

Bedard, as he has in each of his starts, kept the Pirates in it despite a rocky first inning in which the Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs, just as they did against A.J. Burnett on Saturday night.

Burnett, however, settled down and escaped the inning unscathed. Bedard wasn’t quite so fortunate, giving up a run when Carlos Beltran hit into a double play.

St. Louis made it 3-0 in the third when Furcal led off with a double and Tyler Greene walked. Bedard managed to get through Matt Holliday and Beltran and came within a strike of getting out of the jam before Freese lined a sharp single to right.

The hit ended a 1-for-25 funk by the Cardinals with runners in scoring position.

“I didn’t even know it was that bad,” Freese said. “But you feel it a little. You definitely understand what’s happening, what’s been going on.”

Bedard didn’t give up another hit over his final four innings, but once again it wasn’t enough in yet another nip-tuck game for the Pirates.

Though Pittsburgh has been anemic at the plate — coming in with a team batting average of .203, easily the worst in the majors — the Pirates have remained competitive thanks to a pitching staff that ranks third in the NL in ERA (2.53).

Pittsburgh hasn’t scored more than five runs or given up more than five runs in a game this season, the longest such streak to start a year in the NL since the 1965 Pirates.

That team shook off a 6-10 start to finish 90-72 and featured three Hall of Famers in Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski.

This version of the Pirates lacks that kind of star power, and will need to find some offense eventually if it wants to be a factor this summer.

“We’ve scored (three) runs in Erik’s starts,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “It’s problematic.”

The Cardinals have no such worries. The defending World Series champions are the National League’s top offensive team despite losing slugger Albert Pujols in the offseason.

St. Louis has outscored its opponents by 36 runs through the season’s first two weeks, the most in the NL and have won each of its first six series of the season.

“That’s what you try to do, you try to win series,” Freese said. “You want to sweep, but that’s obviously not going to happen all the time. Consistency, that’s the name of this game, and we’re doing that pretty well right now.”

— Associated Press —

A detour to the bullpen has made Lance Lynn a better starting pitcher.

Lynn allowed only an inside-the-park homer to Alex Presley in seven innings, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 4-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.

Filling in nicely for injured ace Chris Carpenter, Lynn (3-0) gave up four hits. He walked one and struck out four. He has won each of his starts this season and compiled a 1.42 ERA, while Carpenter has been on the disabled list with a nerve problem in his pitching shoulder. Lynn pitched primarily in relief last season as a rookie when St. Louis won the World Series.

“What I did when they moved me to the bullpen last year was challenge hitters, get ahead in the count and make them hit my pitch,” Lynn said. “When I was starting, I tried to nitpick. I’d get behind in the count and have to give the hitters good pitches to hit. I learned a lot from pitching out of the bullpen. I’m more aggressive and more confident now as a starter.”

Lynn showed that aggressive approach against Pittsburgh as he needed just 88 pitches to get through seven innings. He allowed four hits and one walk while striking out four.

“Efficient is the right word,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said in describing Lynn’s outing. “He had good life on the ball and later in the game he really mixed in all his pitches. He had a good tempo, a good rhythm with (catcher Yadier Molina). He really kept them off balance.”

Presley led off the bottom of the first with a drive off the top of the center field fence, the ball just eluding a leaping center fielder Skip Schumaker. Jack Wilson hit the Pirates’ only other inside-the-park home run at PNC Park on July 2, 2004, and the last Pittsburgh player to hit one was Freddy Sanchez at Houston on July 21, 2008.

“I wasn’t expecting it,” Presley said. “I thought I had a triple for sure, and when I saw him miss it, I think he got hurt out there and couldn’t get up, that helped my chances a bunch. It was one of those things.”

Schumaker, who said he thought he would be able to play Saturday, was shaken up on the play and left the game. He had been activated from the disabled list prior to the game after missing the first 13 games because of a strained right oblique.

“Obviously it was not the debut I was looking for,” Schumaker said with a half-smile. “First of all, I should of caught the ball. Second of all, I couldn’t breathe. Coming off an oblique injury and getting your ribs rattled wasn’t something you wanted to do. They pulled me as a precautionary measure. I felt I could have stayed in but it is what it is.”

Jose Tabata followed Presley’s homer with a single but Pittsburgh never put a runner in scoring position.

“You get an inside-the-park homer and drop a single to the next guy and we ended up with two more (hits) the rest of the night,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “It was another strong outing for (Lynn). You have to take the barrel to him. He doesn’t seem like he’s going to hurt himself.”

Lynn also scored the go-ahead run on Carlos Beltran’s two-out single in the fifth inning off Charlie Morton (0-1).

Daniel Descalso homered for the NL Central-leading Cardinals, who won for the fifth time in six games.

Morton allowed two runs — one earned — and four hits in five innings with three walks and six strikeouts.

Mitchell Boggs and Jason Motte, who notched his third save in three tries, each pitched a hitless inning to complete the four-hitter for St. Louis.

After St. Louis tied it in the second inning on Molina’s RBI double, Lynn led off the fifth with a single. He took second on Rafael Furcal’s groundout, advanced to third on Matt Holliday’s fielder’s choice and scored on Beltran’s line hit to right field.

Descalso homered — a liner into the right-field stands — in the eighth off Jared Hughes to start a two-run inning. Furcal added a run-scoring double.

— Associated Press —