St. Louis ? It all happened so quickly, even Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal wasn’t sure what he accomplished.

Furcal turned the 12th unassisted triple play in major-league history, but the St. Louis Cardinals beat Atlanta, 3-2, Sunday night on Albert Pujols’ tiebreaking homer off John Smoltz in the eighth inning.

Furcal single-handedly snuffed out a Cardinals rally in the fifth for the first unassisted triple play in the majors since Oakland second baseman Randy Velarde did it against the New York Yankees May 29, 2000.

“I didn’t know right away,” Furcal said. “I wasn’t thinking of trying to get three outs by myself, I was just trying to get outs.”

With runners on first and second, Furcal made a leaping grab of pitcher Woody Williams’ liner. The runners were going on a 1-1 pitch, and Furcal stepped on second base to double up Mike Matheny before tagging out Orlando Palmeiro as he made a futile attempt to scamper back to first.

Furcal said he was once involved in a triple play in the minors.

“But it wasn’t all by myself,” he said.

Williams is one of the best-hitting pitchers in the majors, with a .250 batting average and seven RBIs.

“That’s amazing,” he said. “I told myself to just hit the ball on the ground, and all of a sudden it’s there, and I reach for it off the end of the bat. It’s a nice play on Furcal’s part.”

The Cardinals have hit into two triple plays this season, also doing it April 10 at Colorado.

One of the 12 unassisted triple plays in the modern era (since 1900) came in the 1920 World Series, when Indians second baseman Bill Wambsganss did it in the fifth inning of Game 5 against Brooklyn.