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 —