ST. LOUIS Reds rally to win in 12th behind Pena, relief corps

The Reds' relievers threw 11 scoreless innings in a 4-2 win over the Cards.
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The Cincinnati Reds' unheralded bullpen added to the St. Louis Cardinals' frustrations.
Wily Mo Pena tripled home the tiebreaking run in the 12th inning to cap his first three-hit game, the Cardinals wasted an outstanding start from Sterling Hitchcock and the Reds got 11 scoreless innings from their relievers to rally for a 4-2 victory Friday night.
"If you can't be contending yourself, this is what you want to be doing," reliever Scott Randall said after getting his first career victory. "Obviously it's not nearly as good as being in the race, but it's fun doing this, too."
The Cardinals, coming off a tough series in Chicago in which they played 51 innings in four days, have lost five of six. After Albert Pujols' two-run home run in the first, they got only four hits the rest of the way.
Fell two back
St. Louis fell two games behind first-place Houston and 11/2 games behind Chicago in the NL Central.
"With all the damage we send to the plate, there's no way we can't get a mark or two somewhere there," manager Tony La Russa said. "We're better than that, no matter how good they pitched."
Starter Aaron Harang left after one inning with a lower back strain, then the Reds' relievers took over. Todd Van Poppel, recalled from the minors on Wednesday, set the tone by allowing two hits in six innings.
Phil Norton, John Riedling, Randall (1-1) and Chris Reitsma, who got his seventh save in 12 chances, kept the Cardinals' bats silent.
Cardinals star Jim Edmonds missed his third straight start because of a bruised right knee, and slumping Edgar Renteria was given the night off. Edmonds limped to first on a fly out as a pinch-hitter in the 10th.
Off night
Jason Isringhausen had an off-night, blowing only his second save in 19 chances in the ninth.
Tim Hummel, who homered in the sixth off Sterling Hitchcock, drew a leadoff walk, advanced on a wild pitch, took third on a single by D'Angelo Jimenez and scored on Sean Casey's groundout to first.
"If I don't walk the leadoff guy, they don't score," Isringhausen said. "I've got to work twice as hard when I do that."
Hummel hesitated between third and home before Martinez, who had been playing even with the bag, threw to second for a force-out.
Jason LaRue, who had been in a 12-for-78 slump, got an infield hit off Jason Simontacchi (8-5) to start the 12th. Pena, who entered with a .176 average, followed with his first triple of the year and Eric Valent hit an RBI single.
Valent was thrown out at the plate by center fielder So Taguchi when he tried to score on Hummel's flyout.
Hitchcock has an 0.95 ERA in 19 innings since St. Louis acquired him from the New York Yankees on Aug. 22. He struck out eight and walked one in seven innings.
Hitchcock threw six scoreless innings in his last start at Cincinnati on Aug. 31.
"You see if they've made any adjustments, and really they hadn't," Hitchcock said. "So I just kind of stayed with the game plan from the last time."