Cardinals earn split

~ St. Louis rallied in the second game to snap its losing skid.

ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals ended their slide, probably too late to do them any good.

Miguel Cairo's RBI triple capped a four-run third inning, and St. Louis rallied past the Chicago Cubs 4-3 in the second game of a day-night doubleheader to end a nine-game losing streak.

Chicago's NL Central lead was cut to one game over Milwaukee, but St. Louis is six games back of the Cubs with just over two weeks remaining.

In the opener, Alfonso Soriano hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth inning that powered the Cubs to a 3-2 win and gave Kerry Wood his first win since May 29 last year. St. Louis lost nine in a row for the first time since a 10-game skid in 1980.

Soriano hit another homer in the second game, a two-run drive in the second off Joel Pineiro (5-3). Chicago also got a first-inning RBI single from Aramis Ramirez and took a 3-0 lead, but the Cubs had two runners thrown out at the plate.

Center fielder Jim Edmonds caught Derrek Lee trying to score on Mark DeRosa's lineout to end the first and left fielder So Taguchi's relay made Ryan Theriot an easy out in the second.

A key error by catcher Jason Kendall hurt the Cubs in the third.

Kendall bounced a throw to first that eluded Lee after recovering the ball on a third strike in the dirt to Ryan Ludwick. Yadier Molina had a two-run double, Scott Spiezio tied it with a single -- his first RBI since substance-abuse rehab -- and Cairo tripled over center fielder Jacque Jones.

Pineiro allowed one hit over his last five innings, retiring 15 straight hitters after Lee's leadoff double in the third. Russ Springer worked around an error to start the eighth and Jason Isringhausen finished for his 29th save in 31 chances.

Sean Marshall (7-8) made his first start since Aug. 31 and lasted 2 2/3 innings, giving up four runs -- two unearned -- and six hits.

Ryan Dempster shut down the Cardinals with a perfect ninth in the opener, only hours after his struggles made the Cubs scramble for a victory Friday.

"I had a little talk with him last night before he left the park and I said, 'Look, I have all the confidence in the world in you,'" Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.