Albert Pujols didn't take kindly to Milwaukee reliever Carlos Villanueva's emphatic celebration upon escaping a bases-loaded jam. So the next time he came to bat, the St. Louis Cardinals' slugger did something about it.
Pujols doubled to spark a four-run eighth inning that rallied the Cardinals to a 5-3 victory Wednesday night and pulled them within 3 1/2 games of the Brewers for the NL wild-card lead. That's where they were starting a two-game series in St. Louis, their final shot against Milwaukee.
Pujols' hit came an inning after he took a few menacing steps toward Carlos Villanueva because of the pitcher's arm-raising, in-your-face gesture to celebrate a big out. He was steered away by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi.
``When you start pointing to the dugout and saying all the things that he was saying, a guy that respects the game like I myself, I didn't appreciate it and I had to let him know,'' Pujols said. ``I guess he did us a favor. He woke up a sleeping giant.''
Rebounding from a 12-0 rout Tuesday, the Cardinals ended a seven-game losing streak against the Brewers, who took the season series 10-5.
``There's days we're not good enough, but we really try,'' manager Tony La Russa said. ``We have more talent than people think.''
In other NL games Wednesday night, it was: Chicago 2, Pittsburgh 0; San Diego 5, Arizona 4; New York 6, Philadelphia 3; Florida 4, Atlanta 1; Washington 5, Los Angeles 4; Houston 4, Cincinnati 1; and San Francisco 4, Colorado 1.
The Cardinals were held to four hits in the first five innings and had a scoreless streak of 19 innings against Milwaukee pitching dating to July before Ryan Ludwick's 32nd homer off Manny Parra in the sixth. Ludwick, who finished a triple shy of the cycle, doubled to drive in Pujols with the first run of the eighth.
Troy Glaus followed with a game-tying single and took second on the throw home. After moving to third on a ground out, Glaus slid in just ahead of catcher Jason Kendall's tag with the go-ahead run when shortstop J.J. Hardy short-hopped his throw to the plate on pinch hitter Aaron Miles' grounder against a drawn-in infield.
The rally came after the Cardinals left the bases loaded in the seventh when Joe Mather fouled out against Villanueva, who celebrated demonstratively while facing the St. Louis dugout.
Villanueva said he was not trying to show anybody up.
``I was caught up in the heat of the moment, got excited a little bit and they took offense to it,'' Villanueva said. ``A couple of words were said back and forth, but I'm not going to be intimidated by anybody. I may have looked over there, but I didn't look at anybody in particular.''
Ryan Franklin (5-5) worked a scoreless eighth with a walk and strikeout and rookie Chris Perez finished for his sixth save in seven chances with three strikeouts in the ninth, allowing only a one-out double to Hardy. Perez is 6-for-6 since being recalled from Triple-A Memphis in early August to replace Jason Isringhausen as the closer.
Hardy had three hits and an RBI for the Brewers, who had outscored the Cardinals 42-7 during their streak. Milwaukee is 58-6 when leading after seven innings and the Cardinals are 5-39 when trailing after seven.
Daniel Murphy hit a tiebreaking double after Carlos Delgado's second solo homer off Rudy Seanez (5-4) had tied the game in the eighth, and visiting New York reclaimed first place in the NL East.
Brian Stokes (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning for his first win with the Mets. Pedro Feliciano and Joe Smith worked the eighth and Luis Ayala finished for his second save in three tries.
Ryan Howard hit a two-run homer and Jayson Werth also homered for the Phillies, who fell a half-game behind the Mets.
Tim Redding outpitched Greg Maddux to send visiting Los Angeles to a season-high sixth consecutive loss.
Redding (9-8) held the Dodgers in check for six innings, allowing three solo homers among eight hits. Joel Hanrahan got Matt Kemp to fly out with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning before finishing for his sixth save.
Maddux (6-11) allowed four runs - two earned - on eight hits in 5 1-3 innings.
Jason Marquis (9-7) allowed five hits in seven innings and visiting Chicago turned two well-placed bunts into two runs in the seventh inning for yet another three-game sweep of Pittsburgh.
Carlos Marmol pitched a scoreless eighth inning and Kerry Wood finished for his 27th save in 32 attempts.
Zach Duke (4-13), who lost his ninth consecutive decision, took a shutout into the seventh.
In San Diego, Jody Gerut singled in the go-ahead run off Chad Qualls (2-8) in the eighth inning to deny Arizona's Randy Johnson his 295th career win.
Mike Adams (2-3) pitched one inning for the win and Trevor Hoffman struck out the side for his 27th save in 30 chances and career save No. 551.
At Atlanta, Josh Johnson threw a four-hitter for the first complete game of his career, Hanley Ramirez had a two-run single and Dan Uggla hit his 28th homer to help Florida win for the third time in five games.
Johnson (4-0) struck out eight and walked three to improve to 3-0 with a 2.58 ERA in six starts on the road this season.
Mike Hampton (2-2) allowed eight hits and three runs, walked two and struck out five in eight innings for the Braves, losers of 13 of their last 16 games.
Roy Oswalt beat visiting Cincinnati yet again, limiting the Reds to five hits in seven innings.
Hunter Pence and Ty Wigginton hit two-run homers to help Oswalt (12-9) beat the Reds for the 22nd time in 23 decisions.
Cincinnati's Josh Fogg (2-7) has dropped his last five decisions overall and his last seven against Houston.
Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning and host San Francisco avoided a three-game sweep.
After Molina's one-out homer off Livan Hernandez (1-3) tied the game at 1, Sandoval connected for his first major league homer with a drive just inside the left-field foul pole.
Tim Lincecum (15-3) struck out 10 to boost his majors-leading strikeout total to 210.
