St. Louis ? Ken Griffey Jr. came up empty again in his bid to hit his 500th homer. So did the Cincinnati Reds, who lost their eighth straight on the road.

Albert Pujols homered off Mike Matthews to lead off the bottom of the 10th inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a 4-3 victory over the Reds on Friday night, extending their winning streak to five games. The NL Central leaders have won 14 of 18 overall.

Reminiscent of Mark McGwire’s 70-homer season in 1998, flashbulbs popped throughout each of Griffey’s at-bats. Otherwise, the occasion was less than a big event in St. Louis, with Busch Stadium about 10,000 seats shy of a sellout. There were more than 3,000 no-shows.

Griffey was 0-for-4, taking a called third strike in the second, lining out to shortstop in the fourth, flying out to center in the seventh and tapping out on a checked swing in the ninth. He’s 3-for-17 with two RBIs in four games since his last homer on Sunday against the Indians and hasn’t come close to the fences.

His best play of the night came in center field, where he made a diving grab of Roger Cedeno’s shallow fly for the first out in the eighth. The Reds trainer briefly ran out to attend to Griffey, but he waved him off.

The 34-year-old Griffey is trying to become the sixth player to get to 500 before his 35th birthday. Sammy Sosa also was 34 when he hit his 500th early last season at Cincinnati.

Griffey has only three homers at Busch Stadium, where he’s a career .220 hitter.

The Reds had key RBIs from pinch-hitter Jacob Cruz and Barry Larkin against a tiring Chris Carpenter in a two-run eighth to take a 3-2 lead.

The Cardinals tied it with a two-out rally in the ninth off closer Danny Graves, who has blown seven saves in 34 chances. The rally featured hits by pinch-hitters Marlon Anderson and Ray Lankford, and the tying run scored on Tony Womack’s infield hit.

Pujols was 2-for-4 and also had a sacrifice fly in the sixth. He hit a 2-0 pitch from Matthews (1-1) over the right-field wall for his 18th homer, and the third game-winning homer of his career. Julian Tavarez (1-0) struck out the side in the top of the 10th for St. Louis.