Cardinals' plunge continues

CHICAGO -- The St. Louis Cardinals continued their season theme Saturday, hitting into their major league-leading 135th and 136th double plays.

Matt Garza pitched seven sharp innings, Aramis Ramirez homered and the Chicago Cubs beat the Cardinals 3-0.

Garza (6-9) scattered five hits, struck out eight and won at Wrigley Field for the first time since June 27.

The Cardinals fell 8 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central. Milwaukee beat the New York Mets 11-9 on Saturday.

The Cardinals' best scoring chance against Garza came in the first inning. John Jay led off the game with a double. Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman drew one-out walks to load the bases.

The threat was extinguished by a double play, as David Freese bounced into the inning killer.

"We've been talking about double plays all year," Freese said. "We've hit into a lot of double plays and it kills rallies. Pretty simple."

The Cubs also turned a double play in the fifth.

Before the game, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said his team's propensity for hitting into DPs was "brutal."

After the game, La Russa said the problem Saturday was simply the opposing pitcher.

"I thought Garza was very good," La Russa said. "He made a lot of pitches to get out of that first inning. I thought he was very good. I thought Edwin [Jackson] was too, he just had that one tough inning where he left a couple balls in the middle of the plate."

Ramirez's two-run homer highlighted a three-run burst in the fourth off Jackson (2-2). Jackson allowed five hits in seven innings after leaving his last start with a right hamstring cramp.

"I came out aggressive from the beginning," Jackson said. "It was just that one inning that I paid for a couple of balls left in the middle of the plate. That pretty much summed up the day."

Sean Marshall, Kerry Wood and Carlos Marmol finished off the shutout. Marmol earned his 29th save in 37 chances.

"With what Matt has been through this year with a lot of his starts, to see him pitch that well and get some run support made it even better for me," Cubs manager Mike Quade said.

Early on, it looked as if it might be more of the same for Garza after Jackson held the Cubs hitless and faced the minimum through three innings. Things changed in the fourth as the Cubs hit for the cycle.

Starlin Castro led off with a single and Ramirez connected one out later for his 24th home run. Carlos Pena then tripled and Marlon Byrd doubled.

"I just paid for mistakes left in the middle of the zone and they hit them," Jackson said.

It was Jackson's turn to be a hard-luck loser despite pitching effectively for the fourth time in five starts since he was traded to St. Louis. Jackson was making his first appearance in Chicago since being dealt by the crosstown White Sox on July 27.

"It's a crazy game when you can come out for [three] innings of shutout ball and then they can score runs that quick in one inning," Jackson said. "It's just a matter of staying out of big innings."

As it turned out, that one rally for the Cubs was all Chicago needed with Garza clicking on all cylinders.

"When you face a guy like Garza, you've got to string some hits together, draw walks and hit mistakes," Freese said. "Do the little things. Obviously we didn't do any of that today."

Noteworthy

* St. Louis' Lance Berkman, who entered August with 28 home runs, has gone homerless in 17 games so far this month.