The St. Louis Cardinals even their weekend series with Atlanta, edging the Braves 5-4 Saturday night at Busch Stadium.

The Braves scored first in the 2 nd inning. Starting pitcher Tim Hudson helped himself by hitting the third of three straight singles to drive in Andruw Jones to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.

Atlanta went on top 2-0 in the 3 rd when Kelly Johnson belted his 14 th home run of the season.

In the 4 th , Atlanta picked up its third run and, like the 1 st inning, Tim Hudson singled to drive in Andruw Jones.

Cardinal bats came alive in the bottom of the 5 th as St. Louis batted around – and then some – scoring 5 runs. The Redbirds got it going with 5 straight singles to lead off the inning and kept it going from there.

Atlanta closed the gap in the 6 th , scoring a run to narrow the St. Louis lead to 5-4. But that was all the scoring there would be on the night.

Russ Springer (7-1) pitched 1 scoreless inning, giving up only 1 hit, to earn the win. Jason Isringhausen pitched a scoreless 9 th inning to pick up his 26 th save. Tim Hudson gave up 5 earned runs on 9 hits in 5 innings to take the loss.

The Cardinals (62-64) and Braves (67-63) wrap up their three game series Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium. Adam Wainwright (11-9) takes the mound for St. Louis against Atlanta’s Jo-Jo Reyes (0-1).