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Cards down Cubs

Sep 29, 2013 - 2:56 AM St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) - Matt Holliday hit a two-run homer and Yadier Molina had two hits and two RBI to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-2 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.

Pete Kozma had two hits, an RBI and a run scored for the Cardinals, who moved one game ahead of the Atlanta Braves for the top spot in the National League. The Braves fell to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

Adam Wainwright (19-9) shined in his final tune up for the post season, limiting the Cubs to two hits and one walk while fanning five in 5 1/3 innings.

With the win, Wainwright tied Washington's Jordan Zimmermann for the most wins in the NL this season.

"You want to have some good positive momentum going into his next start, which will be on Thursday," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "And we get a bonus that he's efficient, and we can stretch him out for five innings to get him an opportunity to take that 19th win. That's a good day."

Seth Maness picked up his first career save after inducing an inning-ending double play. .

Anthony Rizzo hit a solo homer and Donnie Murphy drove in a run for the Cubs.

Edwin Jackson (8-18) was pegged with the loss after allowing six runs on eight hits in just 2 2/3 innings.

"If I had the answer, I would've changed a long time ago. It's one of those years where you forget it, but still learn from it. It was a bad year to sum it up. There's a lot of things to take from it," said Jackson.

The Cardinals scored a pair of runs in the first inning. Jon Jay singled ahead of a Holliday homer to right-center.

St. Louis then pushed four across in the third frame. After back-to-back walks to Holliday and Matt Adams with one out, Molina laced a double to right field to clear the bases. Kozma added a ground-rule double two batters later and Wainwright helped his own cause with an RBI single that deflected off Murphy's glove.

Rizzo led off the ninth with his 23rd homer of the season, and Murphy scored J.C. Boscan with a ground-rule double in the ninth to account for the final margin.

Game Notes

Jay extended his hitting streak to 13 games ... Holliday has 22 homers and 94 RBI this season ... The Cardinals were 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position ... Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro hit his 34th double of the season ... Chicago was 2-for-7 with RISP.