Pujols leads Cards past Pirates, 4-3

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Albert Pujols prevented Jason Isringhausen's latest failure from hurting the St. Louis Cardinals.
Pujols hit a game-winning single in the ninth inning after Isringhausen allowed a tying home run to Jose Hernandez in the top half, giving the Cardinals a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday and a three-game sweep.
Pujols, who leads the majors with 29 RBIs, has the game-winning RBI in four of the Cardinals' last five victories.
"Izzy, I know he wanted to get that save right there, and he made a mistake," Pujols said. "But we came out with a win, and everybody will forget about what happened."
Bucs' last run
St. Louis led 3-2 with two outs in the ninth when Hernandez hit his first homer of the season. Isringhausen (1-2) has allowed three homers in eight innings this year, two resulting in losses, and has a 6.75 ERA.
"Just one bad pitch I wish I could get back, but I can't," Isringhausen said. "It's just frustrating more than anything."
The Hernandez homer denied Mark Mulder his 100th career victory. Then, in the bottom half, David Eckstein and Hector Luna hit consecutive singles off Roberto Hernandez (0-1), and Pujols lined a 2-2 pitch down the third-base line.
Pujols was down 0-2 earlier in the count.
"I know if I get two strikes, I can still take the same approach and get a base hit," Pujols said. "I'm really comfortable with two strikes, it doesn't bother me at all."
Hernandez thought he had Pujols struck out on an 0-2 pitch.
"If he doesn't swing 0-2, it's not a strike," Hernandez said. "He's such a great hitter and such a great competitor, anyway, and now you consider him like Barry Bonds, when he was going good."
Pujols didn't want to talk about the location of the 0-2 pitch.
"If I was an umpire I would tell you so," Pujols said. "Maybe the pitch was good, but he didn't call it, so I don't have anything to say about that."
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