Houston holds off St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- In a game that went down to the wire, the Houston Astros avoided getting swept by their chief rival in the NL Central.

Shane Reynolds allowed one earned run in 5 1-3 innings as the Houston Astros built a four-run, fifth-inning cushion and held on for a 5-4 victory Sunday.

St. Louis cut the deficit to one on Jim Edmonds' two-run homer in the seventh off Nelson Cruz, but settled for taking two of three -- just like last weekend in Houston.

The issue wasn't settled until right fielder Richard Hidalgo made a running, leaping catch of Placido Polanco's liner for the final out with the tying run in scoring position. Manager Jimy Williams said he hadn't been nervous when Hidalgo jumped and then grabbed the ball on the way down.

"No, because if you hold your breath too long, you're going to pass out," Williams said. "You just hope gravity grabs that ball a little bit and it goes in that glove out there and fortunately it did for us."

Lance Berkman, Daryle Ward, Geoff Blum and Adam Everett drove in a run apiece for the Astros, who last were swept by the Cardinals Sept. 2-4, 1996.

"You don't ever want to get swept," catcher Brad Ausmus said. "We've been scuffling a little bit. We haven't been able to put the pitching and the offense together and it was touch and go at the end, but we were able to hang on."

The Cardinals' five-game winning streak came to an end as they finished 5-1 on the homestand.

"All you can do is go out like we did today," manager Tony La Russa said. "If anybody has any complaints, they're not watching the game."

St. Louis' Eli Marrero was 3-for-3 with two steals and an intentional walk and is batting .567 (17-for-30) with a home run and six RBIs. He had the winning hit Saturday, a bases-loaded liner off the left-field wall in the eighth inning of a 2-1 victory.

"What a story," La Russa said. "I think probably a great start is an underestimation."

Reynolds (2-1) rebounded from a poor start in his last outing, allowing two runs and six hits with five strikeouts and three walks. Billy Wagner finished for his first save.

Cardinals starter Garrett Stephenson (0-2) left after three innings with lower back spasms, allowing two runs on five hits. His knees buckled as he walked down the steps to the dugout.

Stephenson didn't accompany the team for the first leg of their upcoming 13-game trip, but was hopeful of making his next start Friday at Milwaukee.

"It's all muscle, so hopefully I'll have a pretty good chance," Stephenson said. "It'll probably be one of those little three-day things."

Stephenson's wild pitch helped the Astros score in the first on a run-scoring groundout by Lance Berkman.

The Astros, who committed six errors in the first 11 games, had two miscues in the bottom of the first as St. Louis tied it. Reynolds threw wildly to second trying for a double play on J.D. Drew's tapper to the mound and Blum botched Albert Pujols' run-scoring grounder to third.

Houston took the lead in the third on a jarring play at the plate. Ausmus, who had singled to start the inning, knocked the ball loose from Cardinals catcher Mike DiFelice after Edmonds' relay on Ward's sacrifice fly.

Blum had an RBI single and Everett had a run-scoring double in a three-run fifth that put the Astros ahead 5-1. Drew gave Houston another run when he missed completely on a shoetop catch attempt on Blum's single and the ball rolled to the wall.