Cardinals, Molina outlast Phillies

ST. LOUIS — The Philadelphia Phillies couldn’t make it two extra-inning wins in a row.

Yadier Molina singled home the winning run with two outs in the 10th inning, giving the St. Louis Cardinals a 2-1 victory Wednesday night that stopped Philadelphia’s six-game winning streak and dropped the Phillies 2 1/2 games back of the NL East-leading New York Mets.

Coming off a tense 7-4, 14-inning victory Tuesday night, the Phillies went ahead on Pat Burrell’s RBI double in the sixth only to have pitcher Adam Wainwright tie the score for St. Louis with a run-scoring single in the bottom half.

Philadelphia, which began the night 1 1/2 games behind San Diego in the NL wild-card race, left two men on in each of the last three innings.

Chase Utley was stranded at third after his one-out triple in the eighth, Jimmy Rollins grounded out with runners on second and third ending the ninth, and Randy Flores (3-0) struck out Aaron Rowand and Jayson Werth with runners on first and second to end the 10th.

Scott Spiezio flied out to the right-field wall against Brett Myers (4-7) for the first out in the 10th, with Shane Victornio making a leaping catch. Miguel Cairo beat out an infield hit, stole second and pinch-hitter Russell Branyan struck out.

Molina, who left Tuesday’s game with flulike symptoms, bounced a single through the left side of the infield. It was the third hit of the game for the slow-footed catcher — and it came on Yadier Molina Bobblehead night.

Wainwright, who became the first Cardinals’ first-year pitcher to make 30 starts since Rick Ankiel in 2000, allowed one run and four hits in eight innings with seven strikeouts.

Phillies starter Jamie Moyer minimized the damage from a season-worst five walks, allowing one run and seven hits in six innings.

Wainwright, a .310 batter who got his fourth pinch hit on Tuesday, tied it at 1 in the sixth with his second hit of the game. The Cardinals got two walks and two hits with two outs against Moyer but left the bases loaded when David Eckstein popped out to shallow right, with Jayson Werth slipping as he tore out a chunk of turf before hauling in the catch.

Two days earlier, Rowand slipped twice in center and then fell while chasing Ryan Ludwick’s fly near the warning track, making the catch from the seat of his pants to preserve a one-run lead in a 13-11 victory.