Albert Pujols drove in three runs and Kyle Loshe battled for 6.2 innings as the Cardinals finally snapped their losing streak at seven games with a 5-4 win in Cincinnati.

The Reds got on the board first with a single run in the bottom of the second.  Then with two on and one out in the third, Pujols connected for his 34 th home run off the year off Reds’ starter Edison Volquez to put the Cards up 3-1. 

The Reds answered with a run in the bottom of the inning, but could never catch the Cardinals the rest of the way.  Once again the bullpen made it interesting in ninth holding onto  a 5-3 lead.  After a lead off walk to Corey Patterson, Chris Perez got the next two batters out, but then Perez walked Javier Valentin.  Then Jerry Hairston Jr. blooped a soft single to score Patterson and bring the tying run to third.  Tony LaRussa pulled Perez for Jason Motte who got Jeff Keppinger to fly out to center.

The Cardinals are six games behind the Mets and the Tragic Number for Wild Card elimination is now five games.  St. Louis will hope to play spoiler this weekend as the Chicago Cubs’ magic number is 2.