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Ludwick belts walk-off homer as Cardinals top Dodgers

Aug 6, 2008 - 6:23 AM By Jim Walsh PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Ryan Ludwick made his lone hit count.

Ludwick smashed a two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th and the St. Louis Cardinals overcame a ninth-inning meltdown to drop the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4, on Tuesday.

Adam Kennedy led off with a single to center field off Jason Johnson (1-1). Johnson then retired Albert Pujols on a pop-up before Ludwick sent a 2-1 fastball to center for his fifth home run in the last four games. The blast gave Jaime Garcia (1-1) the win.

"I've just been trying to get good pitches to hit and drive them," said Ludwick who, was 0-for-5 prior to his homer. "Tonight, up until that at-bat I didn't think I did a real good job. I'm just glad I could contribute a little bit."

While Ludwick finally came through, the Dodgers were lamenting their missed chances.

Los Angeles squandered a golden opportunity when it left the bases loaded in the 10th.

"It was kind of a weird game for us," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "It was just one of those things, we had our opportunities, we just couldn't cash in."

The only reason the game reached the 11th was because the Dodgers did indeed cash in during a four-run ninth.

It appeared St. Louis had things well in hand with a 4-0 entering the final frame until Andruw Jones led off with a pinch-hit homer off Ron Villone. Much-maligned Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen was summoned to close out the victory, but promptly gave up two singles and a walk to load the bases before James Loney and Jeff Kent followed with run-scoring hits to make it 4-3.

Ryan Franklin took over for Isringhausen but surrendered a sacrifice fly to Casey Blake to tie the game and give St. Louis its major league-leading 27th blown save.

The blowup denied Chris Carpenter his first victory since Game 3 of the 2006 World Series. The former Cy Young Award winner allowed three hits in five innings - his second start since undergoing "Tommy John" surgery last July. He like his counterpart Chad Billingsley, was forced to leave early due to rain delays of 22 and 43 minutes.

"I felt much better today," said Carpenter, who yielded one run in four innings in his first start. "I felt my command was better in my fastball and my cutter, the ball was going down a little bit better. My breaking ball still can get better but I did what I had to do to get outs."

"That was vintage," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said of his staff ace. "Quick outs, excellent pitches to this tough lineup."

Billingsley, who threw his first career shutout against the San Francisco Giants in his last start, allowed one run in his five innings with six hits and six strikeouts.

"I was throwing a lot of strikes and getting ahead of hitters," said Billingsley, who threw 53 of 74 pitches for strikes. "The curveball was working well today and I was able to put guys away when I needed to. I thought I could have gone longer but Joe didn't want me to have to warm up twice after sitting for so long."

Pujols, who broke an 0-for-13 skid with a single in the first, smashed a two-run homer in the seventh, which gave St. Louis a 4-0 cushion.

Recently acquired Manny Ramirez had two hits and two walks for the Dodgers, who fell to 1-9 in their last 10 games in St. Louis.