By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH(AP) -- The way Ross Ohlendorf was pitching, once
needing only nine pitches to strike out the side, the Cardinals
knew they needed something special to win. Few are better at
supplying something special than Albert Pujols.

Pujols led off the 10th inning with his second career pinch-hit
home run, and St. Louis withstood Ohlendorf's dominating start
to beat Pittsburgh 2-1 on Saturday night and leave the Pirates
one loss short of an unwanted record.

The Pirates lost their ninth in a row and 81st of the season
and, with one more loss, would become the first team in any of
the four major American pro team sports to endure 17 consecutive
losing seasons. Previously, only the Phillies from 1933-48 also
had 16 losing seasons in a row.

Not that it matters much to the Cardinals, who are coasting with
an 11 1/2-game lead in the NL Central.

Facing Capps for the first time since the reliever was ejected
for hitting him in the side with a pitch Aug. 9 in Pittsburgh,
Pujols hit a 1-2 pitch far beyond the center field wall for his
major league-high 44th homer.

"I don't care who you are, you remember," manager Tony La Russa
said, recalling last month's incident.

Pujols insisted he wasn't trying to get back at Capps, even
though taking a fastball to the ribs hurt him for several days.

"Not revenge," said Pujols, whose three-run shot led St. Louis
to a 14-7 victory on Friday. "What I'm trying to do there is get
on base and try to help my team win a game. ... I don't even
want to talk about that."

Pirates manager John Russell said, "It's pretty amazing. He's
phenomenal. He had two strikes on him and still won the game for
them."

Blake Hawksworth (2-0) pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the
ninth for the victory after starter Mitchell Boggs gave up one
run in seven innings. Ryan Franklin finished up in the 10th for
his 37th save in 39 opportunities.

Ohlendorf allowed only an unearned run over eight innings and
became the 40th major league pitcher to strike out the side on
nine pitches in an inning, but didn't figure in the decision.

Ohlendorf struck out Khalil Greene, Julio Lugo and Jason LaRue
in the seventh, the second time in the game he struck out the
side, and had so much movement on his pitches that catcher Ryan
Doumit dropped the third strike on each batter. Doumit threw to
first each time to get the out.

"I was thinking about it after about the fifth pitch, it kind of
crossed my mind because I don't think I've ever done that,"
Ohlendorf said. "I threw a lot of sliders that bounced for
strike three, and he did a great job of knocking them down and
going and getting them and throwing them out at first."

Ohlendorf, 8-2 at home with no losses there this season since
May 29, struck out a career-high 11 and walked one.

A.J. Burnett of the Yankees is the only other major league
pitcher to strike out the side on nine pitches this season,
accomplishing it June 20 against Marlins. Of the 40 pitchers to
perform the feat, only Hall of Famers Lefty Grove, Nolan Ryan
and Sandy Koufax did it twice. The only other Pirates pitcher to
do it was right-hander Jeff Robinson against the Cubs on Sept.
7, 1987.

The Cardinals' lineup was missing Pujols, Matt Holliday, Yadier
Molina, Mark DeRosa and Brendan Ryan, with Holliday sitting down
for the first time in 39 games since being traded to the
Cardinals.

"We had a heck of a bench," La Russa said. "But we also had a
heck of a lineup."

Troy Glaus, out until last week while recovering from offseason
shoulder surgery, made his first start since last Sept. 28 at
first, and La Russa plans to start him again Sunday at third.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on Lastings Milledge's
run-scoring double, but might have had a bigger inning if it
weren't for left fielder Rick Ankiel's excellent running catch
of Steve Pearce's drive toward the left-center gap that created
a double play.

The Cardinals tied it in the sixth despite getting only one hit,
Skip Schumaker's leadoff single. Schumaker advanced on
Ohlendorf's balk and scored when third baseman Andy LaRoche
misplayed Ryan Ludwick's ground ball for an error.

NOTES: Ludwick was hitless in four at-bats a night after getting
five hits and driving in five. ... C Tony Sanchez, the No. 4
pick in the June draft, was moved from the Pirates' Class A
Lynchburg farm club to West Virginia so he could appear in the
playoffs.