Cardinals nurse slim hopes with win over Brewers

ST. LOUIS -- Albert Pujols had three hits to increase his major league-leading total to 202, and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 Tuesday night.

Sterling Hitchcock (3-1) improved to 9-2 against the Brewers, allowing four runs, three hits and five walks in 5 1-3 innings. Four relievers finished the five-hitter, with Jason Isringhausen pitching the ninth for his 18th save.

St. Louis, which began the night 4 1/2 games back of first-place Houston in the NL Central, improved to 10-2 against Milwaukee with its fifth straight win over the Brewers.

The Cardinals scored in each of the first four innings. St. Louis finished with nine hits, six of them doubles.

Luis Martinez (0-2), making his third major league start, allowed six runs and eight hits in 3 1-3 innings.

St. Louis took a 3-0 lead in the first, when Pujols got his 200th hit on what appeared to be a routine fly ball. Left fielder Mark Smith turned the wrong way and fell down. He got up but the ball fell on the warning track for a double.

Scott Rolen followed with a run-scoring single, and Edgar Renteria hit a two-run double.

Bo Hart's squeeze bunt in the second and a run-scoring wild pitch by Martinez in the third made it 5-0.

Wes Helms hit a two-run homer in the fourth, but Pujols hit an RBI single in the bottom half for a 6-2 lead.

Milwaukee closed in the sixth when pinch-hitter Pete Zoccolillo singled off Jason Simontacchi for his first major league RBI and Scott Podsednik hit a two-run single off Jeff Fassero.Noteworthy

n Hart, the St. Louis second baseman, made a leaping catch with his back to the plate on a second-inning fly by Richie Sexson.

Pujols leads the NL with 49 doubles.