St. Louis Cardinals Albert Pujols holds his bat up after hitting a solo walk off home run in the tenth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on June 5, 2011. St. Louis won the game 3-2. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — The Cardinals (36-25) were looking to end the week-long home stand on a positive note with a sweep of the Chicago Cubs (23-34), and they were able to pull it off late against the Cubs’ bullpen. Albert Pujols hit his 13th home run and fourth in the series to give the Cardinals a dramatic 3-2 win as they enter an eleven day road trip.

There was more bad news for the Cardinals on Sunday as Lance Berkman could be out of the starting lineup for a couple of games. This occurs only days after the Cardinals put Matt Holliday on the 15-day disabled list. Who was going to step up? While it has been someone different over the past few weeks, the Cardinals found big time relief in a very familiar clutch performer named Pujols.

What does manager Tony LaRussa say about his slugger:

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Carlos Zambrano may have outdueled Chris Carpenter, but did not outlast him as the Cardinals’ ace went 9.0 innings on Sunday. The Cubs got to Carpenter (1-5, 4.25) in the fourth inning with back-to-back singles that led to a two-run double from Aramis Ramirez to open up the scoring 2-0. Carpenter, who has allowed the most hits in the National League, gave up only 7 hits on Sunday. He struck out 6 and walked 2, but the runs in the fourth was the difference before the Cardinals offense came to life.

Carpenter did not get the decision, but he’s just fine with the overall results:

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The run support for Carpenter continues to be the main issue and perhaps the biggest reason why he has just one win this season, and the team only has 4 wins in 13 of his starts. In his previous 4 starts, the Cardinals offense has scored just 5 runs while Carpenter is on the mound.

Carlos Zambrano (5-2, 3.98) was looking to avenge a 6-4 loss to the Cardinals on May 10 and he was good enough to get to his bullpen, which wound up failing him and the Cubs. Without Lance Berkman or Colby Rasmus and Jon Jay batting in the clean-up spot, the Cardinals certainly did not have their best to start the game on Sunday. While the fill-ins have been able to come up big, their bats remained silent for the most part against Zambrano. He would end up going 7.0 innings allowing a run on 5 hits and 2 walks.

The Cubs bullpen was unable to lock down the Cardinals after Zambrano exited in the seventh. Cubs closer Carlos Marmol allowed a base hit to Yadier Molina. Tony Cruz pinch ran for Molina. With two outs and two strikes, Ryan Theriot pulled a shot down the left field line for a double to score Cruz and extend his hitting streak to 19 games.

The Cardinals’ shortstop talks about that at-bat:

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Plus, Theriot’s game-tying double would also cause Zambrano to lose his cool once again. This time, ‘Big Z’ was criticizing Carlos Marmol for throwing Theriot a breaking ball.

Albert Pujols caps off a fantastic three-game series against the rival Cubs in which he went 6-11 with 4 home runs and 7 RBI’s. His batting average was .265 before the first game of the series on Friday, but after his phenomenal weekend, Pujols now has a mark of .278.

‘El Hombre’ has been swinging the bat much better as of late, but now is getting the numbers to prove it. Albert talks about why the results are finally happening:

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Fernando Salas relieved Carpenter in the tenth inning and earned his third win of the season.

NOTES…After the 4-3 home stand, the Cardinals will play nine games on the road against the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, and Washington Nationals…The Cardinals are 11 games above .500 for the first time this season…Monday is an off day for the Cardinals, and in the month of June, the Redbirds are not scheduled for any Monday games…The broadcast on Tuesday for the Charter Communications Pregame Show on KMOX 1120 AM will start at 6:10pm.

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