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Hall homers in 10th to lift Brewers past Cardinals

Jul 22, 2008 - 4:40 AM By Jim Walsh PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Bill Hall snapped a 3-3 tie with a solo home run, sparking a three-run, 10th-inning rally that propelled the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-3 victory over the division rival St. Louis Cardinals on Monday.

Rickie Weeks smashed a three-run homer and J. J Hardy contributed four hits to the 16-hit attack as Milwaukee (56-43) moved into a tie with St. Louis (57-44) for second place in the National League Central two games behind the Chicago Cubs (58-41), who lost to Arizona.

"It's always good to get off to a good start," said manager Ned Yost, whose Brewers improved to 4-0 on their current seven-game road trip. "Especially against a tough team like St. Louis. To take the first game of a series is always big in my mind."

Leading off the 10th, Hall deposited a 1-1 pitch from Ryan Franklin (3-3) into the bleachers in left-center.

"It was a slider, out over the plate," Hall said. "Just up a little bit, I just kept my focus on something middle-away and he hung a slider up for me to hit it out."

Jason Kendall followed with a one-out double, his third hit of the night, and scored when second baseman Aaron Miles threw wildly to first on Weeks' infield hit. Hardy capped the scoring with a single that plated Weeks.

"The pitch that Billy Hall hit was a mistake obviously," Franklin said. "I thought I made a pretty decent pitch to Kendall and he fought it out there and Hardy did a good job of hitting. Just bad pitch selection on my part."

The Cardinals had tied the game in the ninth with a run off Milwaukee closer Salomon Torres when Yadier Molina doubled to lead off, moved to third on Cesar Izturis' single and scored on Skip Schumaker's sacrifice fly.

The Cardinals had a chance to come away with a victory when Miles' infield hit placed runners on first and second with two outs for Albert Pujols. But the St. Louis slugger was retired on a fly to center and the game went to extra innings.

"We had a shot," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "We had the right guy up there in order to win the game and he just got under it a little bit."

Torres (5-2) recovered in the bottom of the 10th, pitching around Troy Glaus' double to pick up the win.

"If I had done a better job, there wasn't going to be a need for extra innings," Torres said. "I was glad I was given a second chance to go out there. The guys picked me up right away."

"I think our team is really feeding off of each other," Weeks said. "We're pretty resilient out there. We're just playing a good brand of baseball right now."

Weeks' homer had given the Brewers a 3-2 lead in the fifth.

With one out, Kendall doubled to right off Cardinals starter Joel Pineiro and moved to third on Seth McClung's single. Weeks came to the plate and blasted a first-pitch fastball 431 feet into "Big Mac Land" in left.

It was the ninth homer for the 25-year old, all coming on the road.

Glaus extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a two-run double in the first for the Cardinals, who lost for the sixth time in their last eight games against the Brewers.