Cubs' Clement cools off Cards

ST. LOUIS -- Another stingy outing by Matt Clement helped him beat the St. Louis Cardinals for the first time in his career.

Clement worked eight strong innings for his first victory over St. Louis in eight starts, and Aramis Ramirez hit a three-run homer to give the Chicago Cubs a 4-2 victory Saturday night.

"I didn't do anything special; I just stayed aggressive," Clement said. "The whole lineup is such a dangerous lineup, there's no relaxing at any time."

The Cubs won for only the sixth time in their last 32 games at Busch Stadium over five seasons. A sellout crowd of 49,505, the largest of the season, attended a game that was played in constant rain and temperatures in the high 40s.

"It was a tough day to play," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "The pitchers probably had the best of it."

Clement (4-1) allowed five hits and one run with five strikeouts and one walk, winning his fourth straight start since losing his first outing of the season. During his winning streak Clement has allowed only three earned runs on 13 hits in 28 1/3 innings -- an ERA of 0.95 -- with 31 strikeouts.

He beat the Cardinals for the first time in his career after entering 0-3 with a 5.27 ERA.

Ramirez was 2-for-17 on the first six games of the Cubs' eight-game trip before hitting his seventh homer against Jeff Suppan (2-3) in the fourth.

Sammy Sosa walked with one out and Moises Alou singled before Ramirez hit the first pitch of the at-bat, a hanging slider, into the bullpen in left-center, a drive estimated at 410 feet.

"He thrives in those big-game situations," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "He's as dangerous as anyone up there with runners in scoring position."

Suppan said it was "basically the right pitch, wrong location."

The Cubs added a run in the ninth on Derrek Lee's leadoff double off Josh Pearce and an RBI single by Alex Gonzalez.

The Cardinals had a strong start against Clement. Tony Womack singled to open the first, stole second and scored when the next batter, Ray Lankford, singled.

St. Louis got only two more hits in the next six innings, a one-out double by Jim Edmonds in the fourth and a one-out double by Lankford in the sixth.

Joe Borowski gave up Edgar Renteria's RBI single in the ninth before finishing for his sixth save in as many chances.

"Boy, that was some game," Baker said. "To the last out, you know the Cardinals are going to threaten."

Suppan also lasted eight innings, giving up three runs on seven hits to continue a strong start with his new team. He won his previous two starts, and in the last three outings has allowed seven earned runs in 28 2/3 innings.

"Obviously, I want to stay out of the big inning and tonight I wasn't able to do that," Suppan said. "For the most part, I was locating and moving it around. But anytime you lose, it's always tough."

Last year, the Cubs were 3-13 at Busch Stadium although they took four of five in a big September series over the Cardinals en route to the NL Central championship.