Edmonds' homer caps 15-hit attack

ST. LOUIS -- Albert Pujols is the star and Scott Rolen the favorite son for the St. Louis Cardinals.

For one game at least, Jim Edmonds is the hero.

Edmonds' two-run, 12th-inning home run beat the Houston Astros 6-4 Wednesday to even the National League Championship Series at three games apiece.

One more victory, and the Cardinals can validate their major league-best 105-57 regular-season record and advance to the World Series for the first time in 17 years.

It was a fitting star turn for Edmonds, until this year known more for taking away home runs with his glove than hitting them with his bat.

With a scintillating second half, he tied his career best with 42 home runs in the regular season, one off the 54-year-old franchise record by a left-handed hitter. He hit .301 and tied his career high with 111 RBIS.

More than half his hits -- 83 of 150 -- went for extra bases. He was the NL player of the month in July after batting .381 with 13 homers and 27 RBIs, and was the NL player of the week twice in the second half.

Before Game 6 of the NLCS, though, Edmonds had been having a so-so postseason with two homers and seven RBIs in 30 at-bats. He had been 1-for-5 with strikeouts in his previous two at-bats before connecting on an 0-1 fastball from Dan Miceli after Pujols drew a leadoff walk and Rolen fouled out.

The drive off the back of the wall of the Cardinals' bullpen in right field sent the relievers gathered there into a frenzied dance.

Edmonds' homer saved the day for the Cardinals.

Pujols, the 2001 NL rookie of the year and now a perennial NL MVP candidate, had shaken the Cardinals out of a playoff slump with a homer, double, single and two runs scored.

The Cardinals, the NL's best offense during the regular season but a puny .161 with seven runs in three straight losses in Houston, followed their star's lead with a 15-hit attack.

Pujols, who entered the game hitless in his last five at-bats, hit his fourth homer of the series, a two-run shot in the first, and doubled and scored in the third.

The Cardinals led 4-3 until closer Jason Isringhausen, who tied the franchise record with 47 saves in the regular season, allowed a game-tying single to Jeff Bagwell with two outs in the ninth. Isringhausen ended up working a scoreless 10th and 11th -- his first three-inning stint since 2001 -- to keep it tied.

Julian Tavarez, playing with a broken left hand after his tantrum in Game 4, followed with two perfect innings to set the stage for Edmonds' heroics.

Isringhausen, who tied the franchise record with 47 saves, pitched more than one inning on 13 occasions. He worked two innings once twice in the regular season, the last time on May 28 when he blew the save but picked up with the win in a 2-1, 10-inning victory over the Astros.