Redbirds rally to win

ST. LOUIS -- Albert Pujols hit a tie-breaking home run in the fifth inning and Preston Wilson had three RBIs, helping the St. Louis Cardinals end the Florida Marlins' nine-game winning streak with a 13-6 victory Wednesday night.

Hanley Ramirez had three hits and Mike Jacobs had two RBIs for the Marlins, who missed a chance to climb to .500 after starting the season 11-31. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no team since 1900 has reached .500 after falling 20 games below, and no team has won 10 in a row after such a ragged start.

Getting manager Joe Girardi back after he spent Tuesday night back home with his pregnant wife while bracing for a possible hurricane was no help for the Marlins, who squandered a four-run lead.

The National League Central-leading Cardinals have only three comebacks of four or more runs all season.

They tied a franchise record with eight doubles and had a season-best 20 hits without any from recent hitting star Gary Bennett, who sprained his lower back stretching to tag out a runner trying to score on a pitch that he couldn't handle in the second. Bennett is 13-for-21 in his last five starts with two game-winning hits last weekend, including his first career grand slam, to beat the Cubs.

Jason Marquis (14-12) contributed two hits and an RBI to the comeback for the Cardinals, who have won four of five and are 4-1 against the Marlins this year. His hitting overshadowed the latest in a string of shaky starts.

Marquis allowed five runs and seven hits and threw 108 pitches in five innings, also walking three and hitting two batters in the third. One of them, Miguel Cabrera, was day to day after being removed with a bruised left forearm.

A two-run double by Wilson and an RBI single by Marquis came in a four-run fourth that tied it at 5. Pujols led off the fifth with his 39th homer, and first since Aug. 22, on a 1-1 pitch from Ricky Nolasco (11-9) to give the Cardinals the lead.

Juan Encarnacion added a sacrifice fly off Matt Herges in the sixth. Scott Rolen hit his third double for an RBI and Pujols also had an RBI double off the right-field wall in a five-run seventh against Randy Messenger that made it 13-5.

Nolasco, making his first career start against the Cardinals, lasted four-plus innings. He gave up seven runs, six earned, on nine hits, and has given up 11 earned runs in six innings his last two starts.

Noteworthy

* Marquis is 2-5 with a 6.81 ERA in his last seven starts. He's 3-8 in August the last two seasons with a 6.64 ERA.

* The Marlins outscored the opposition 53-29 during the winning streak.

* The Cardinals' eight doubles tied a franchise record set previously in 1998 against the Chicago Cubs and in 1922 against the Brooklyn Robins.

* Rolen, a six-time Gold Glove third baseman, had a fielding error in the first and a throwing error in the eighth.