Hall's hit sinks St. Louis

A double in the eighth denied the Cardinals their sixth consecutive victory.

ST. LOUIS -- Bill Hall's two-run double in the eighth inning gave the Milwaukee Brewers, once down by four runs, a 5-4 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Lyle Overbay homered and Brady Clark had three hits and an RBI for the Brewers, who beat the Cardinals for only the second time in eight meetings and ended St. Louis' five-game winning streak.

The Cardinals led 4-0 entering the fifth.

Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer, his third in five games since the All-Star break, for the Cardinals. Scott Rolen and Einar Diaz each had an RBI, but the Cardinals lost for only the 10th time in 40 games against National League Central competition. They're 52-3 when leading after seven innings.

Hall, who struck out as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and stayed in the game, had been 0-for-9 before his liner to the opposite field just inside the right-field line off Julian Tavarez (1-2). It was the third straight hit off Tavarez following an infield hit by Geoff Jenkins off the pitcher's glove that extended his hitting streak to 12 games and a single by Damian Miller that put runners at the corners.

Miller scored the go-ahead run on a close play at the plate with Diaz, the catcher, missing a sweeping tag on an off-line relay from right fielder Hector Luna.

Matt Wise (4-2) allowed one hit and struck out one in a scoreless seventh, Julio Santana escaped a two-on, two-out situation in the eighth by getting pinch-hitter Jim Edmonds to fly out. Derrick Turnbow worked the ninth for his 20th save in 22 chances.

Pujols hit his 25th homer into the Brewers' bullpen in left with one out in the first on a full count off Doug Davis. That apparently impressed Milwaukee manager Ned Yost to the point that Pujols was intentionally walked with one out and a runner on third in the third.

Since the break, Pujols is 7-for-20 with three homers and six RBIs and has scored seven runs.

Rolen's sacrifice fly in the third and Diaz' RBI single in the fourth made it 4-0.

Consecutive doubles by Miller and Russell Branyan to start the fifth plus an RBI single by Clark later in the inning cut the gap in half. Overbay hit his 12th homer off Jeff Suppan leading off the sixth.

The left-handed Davis lasted four innings, giving up four runs and six hits against a lineup loaded with seven right-handed hitters, as Edmonds (hamstring, groin) and Larry Walker both rested. In two starts against the Cardinals this season he's pitched 8 1/3 innings and surrendered eight runs.

Noteworthy

The Cardinals' 1982 World Series champions were honored before the game on Whitey Herzog bobblehead day.

A sellout crowd of 44,270 enabled the Cardinals to top 2 million in attendance Tuesday and the franchise is on pace for record numbers in the final season at Busch Stadium.