St. Louis ? When the Busch Stadium organist began playing the “Tomahawk Chop” ditty Friday night, the St. Louis Cardinals knew it was good news: The Houston Astros finally had lost.

Then the Cardinals handled things from their end in a 10-5 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night, getting Jeff Weaver’s first win in nine home starts and home runs from Albert Pujols and Preston Wilson.

“I don’t think you’ll hear the Braves chant going too often here,” Weaver said. “But it was nice to hear and a big swing for us.”

St. Louis (82-77) increased its division lead to 11â2 games over second-place Houston (81-79), which lost, 4-1, at Atlanta. The Cardinals had a seven-game lead with 12 games to go, but wasted nearly all of it by losing eight of nine.

The Cardinals cut their magic number to two for clinching a third straight NL Central title. After two more games with the Brewers, the Cardinals would play host to San Francisco on Monday in the makeup of a Sept. 17 rainout if it’s needed to decide the division.

Fans were doing the tomahawk chop while keeping track of the two games, although manager Tony La Russa said he wasn’t aware that the Astros had lost until he heard the familiar chords.

“I thought that was really a good touch. Very smart,” La Russa said. “And our fans enjoyed it.”

Now La Russa wants his team to get the division clinched.

“What we’ve got to make sure we do is what we’ve had trouble doing: keeping our eye on the finish line and backing up solid games,” La Russa said. “That’s an important two-step, but we’ve got to make sure nothing’s different about our game tomorrow.”