St. Louis ? Edgar Renteria had all the motivation he needed.

“Sometimes, when the game is on the line, I concentrate better,” Renteria said after his three-run, ninth-inning homer gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 10-9 win over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday night.

Renteria said he wasn’t trying to hit a home run off Cubs closer Antonio Alfonseca.

“I was just looking for a pitch to hit somewhere. I hit it pretty good,” Renteria said.

Renteria drove in four runs as the Cardinals came back from a 6-0 deficit after three innings.

The Cardinals entered the ninth trailing 9-4, but Fernadno Vina led off the inning with an infield single. An RBI double by pinch-hitter Miguel Cairo scored Vina and an RBI single by Jim Edmonds brought in closer Antonio Alfonseca, who walked Albert Pujols, struck out J.D. Drew and then gave up an RBI single to Tino Martinez.

Alfonseca (1-2) then gave up Edgar Renteria’s towering shot to left-center to end the game.

Dave Veres (4-6) pitched the final two innings for the win.

Renteria, a .279 career hitter, is batting .312 this season.

“He’s a winning ballplayer who is having a great year,” St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.

Cubs manager Bruce Kimm said he felt responsible for the loss but would not be specific about which moves he thought were mistakes.

“Let’s just say I made some mistakes that cost us the game,” he said.

One of his moves was to remove starter Matt Clement in the sixth inning after the Cardinals scored their first run and had two runners on with one out.

Clement had little to say when asked about being removed from the game.

“He’s the manager,” he said.

Moises Alou and Corey Patterson each drove in three runs for the Cubs and starter Matt Clement allowed two runs in his first start since allowing six runs against Philadelphia last Tuesday, but the Cubs’ bullpen let them down.

The Cubs are 3-17 at Busch Stadium since 2000.

Mets 6, Reds 5

New York John Valentin hit a two-run double with two outs in the seventh inning to cap a four-run rally. Ken Griffey Jr. homered for the Reds, who are tied with the Mets for third in the NL wild card race.

Expos 4, Marlins 1

Montreal Bartolo Colon pitched a two-hitter for his seventh complete game of the season, and Jose Vidro and Fernando Tatis homered to lead Montreal over Florida. Colon (4-1) held the Marlins to a one-out double by Eric Owens in the first and Andy Fox’s two-out triple in the eighth. The Marlins turned the first triple play in team history in the third when third baseman Mike Lowell caught Vladimir Guerrero’s liner with two runners on the move.

Phillies 7, Braves 1

Atlanta Scott Rolen homered, and a strong outing by Vicente Padilla carried Philadelphia to a victory over Atlanta. The Braves lost two of three games during the weekend at Turner Field their first series loss since May 7-9 against Los Angeles. Jimmy Rollins had three RBIs for the Phillies.

Brewers 5, Rockies 3

Milwaukee Ronnie Belliard hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the sixth inning as Milwaukee completed its first series sweep against Colorado. The Brewers, who have the worst record in the National League, swept the three-game series and have won four in a row overall to improve to 38-67 on the season.

Astros 4, Pirates 0

Houston Wade Miller and four relievers combined on a five-hitter as Houston shut out Pittsburgh for the third time in four games. Houston swept the four-game series, outscoring Pittsburgh 19-3. The Pirates hadn’t been shut out three times in four games since August 1986.

Diamondbacks 5, Padres 4, 10 innings

Phoenix Luis Gonzalez hit a game-winning single in the bottom of the 10th inning and also had an inside-the-park homer in the fifth to lead Arizona to its seventh straight win. Junior Spivey singled and stole second before Gonzalez, who went 4-for-4, singled to center off San Diego closer Trevor Hoffman (1-2). The win gave the Diamondbacks their first 7-0 homestand.

Giants 3, Dodgers 1

San Francisco Jason Schmidt struck out 10 over seven dominant innings as San Francisco snapped a three-game losing streak. Jeff Kent’s two-run homer in the first inning was all the offense required by Schmidt (6-5), who had the sixth 10-strikeout game of his career. He yielded four hits, allowing just one runner to reach third base. The Giants, went 2-5 on a seven-game homestand. They played the weekend series against their biggest rivals without their top four outfielders and catcher Benito Santiago because of injuries.