Simon's pinch-hit single beats Cards

Pittsburgh manager Lloyd McClendon bucked the odds in the ninth inning of the 6-5 win.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Few managers so willingly defy baseball's unwritten guidebook for managerial strategy than the Cardinals' Tony La Russa. For a change, an opposing manager was even more unorthodox than he was.
A series of atypical moves by Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon paid off in a 6-5 victory over St. Louis on Wednesday night that prevented the Cardinals from tying Houston for the NL Central lead.
"What book? I never read that book. It's a good thing I didn't, huh?" McClendon said.
In the ninth inning, McClendon's final move -- using a left-handed hitting pinch-hitter against left-handed reliever Pedro Borbon -- proved decisive as Randall Simon delivered a game-winning single.
Simon probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to win it if La Russa hadn't intentionally walked not one, but two hitters to get to him. The night before, La Russa used four relievers to protect a five-run lead in the ninth, but stayed with Borbon against all six Pirates batters in the ninth Wednesday.
Pujols extends streak
At least Albert Pujols of the Cardinals created a sense of normalcy in a game that would soon turn nonconformist. Pujols homered for the fourth straight game to extend his hitting streak to 27 games, the majors' longest this season.
Pujols' three-run shot in the sixth was his second in as many games and put the Cardinals up 4-2. They fell behind 5-4 on eighth-inning homers by Craig Wilson and Reggie Sanders in a span of three pitches by Cal Eldred, but tied it on Edgar Renteria's RBI single against Julian Tavarez in the ninth.
Before his successful move with Simon won it, McClendon twice left himself open for second-guessing. He pulled Wilson after he homered twice to insert Carlos Rivera for defensive purposes, and he left Tavarez (2-3) in even though he had already pitched two innings.
Borbon (0-1) quickly got the first two batters he faced in the ninth. La Russa, who often goes with the percentages in such situations, then stayed with him against the right handed-hitting Jason Kendall, and Kendall doubled to left-center.
Intentional walks
With the Pirates' two hottest hitters coming up, La Russa ordered Brian Giles and Sanders intentionally walked. Simon fell behind in the count 0-2, then steered an opposite-field single to left that just eluded a diving Renteria at short.
"It's tough to take a loss, but I couldn't take one of their big guys beating us," La Russa said.
Before that, it appeared the Cardinals' big guy would do exactly that to Pittsburgh. Pujols' three-run homer in the sixth was his 34th of the season and followed Miguel Cairo's RBI double and Eduardo Perez's single against Brian Meadows.
Pujols probably wishes the Cardinals were making a return trip to Pittsburgh. He is hitting .456 against the Pirates this season and has 11 homers and 32 RBIs in 23 career games in PNC Park.
Pujols' hitting streak is the Cardinals' longest since Ken Boyer's 29-game streak in 1959.