|
Geovany Soto hit his 15th homer and Derrek Lee had three hits and an RBI for the NL Central leaders, who took two of three from the second-place Cardinals and won for only the fourth time in 11 games overall. The weekend series was sold out with standing-room attendance of 46,752 for the finale.
Ryan Ludwick, selected for his first All-Star game earlier in the day, hit his 17th homer and first since June 11 for the Cardinals.
The right fielder lost Soto's catchable foul flyball in the sun the pitch before the catcher's homer off Russ Springer in the eighth.
Cardinals center fielder Rick Ankiel threw out Daryle Ward at the plate in the eighth trying to score from second on Mike Fontenot's single, a day after getting the game-winning two-run single. Yadier Molina extended his hitting streak to 13 games for St. Louis, which concluded a 3-3 homestand.
Marshall (1-2) won for the first time in five starts dating to last season, allowing one run on six hits in six innings. Besides Ludwick's homer with one out in the sixth, the Cardinals had only two other runners in scoring position against the left-hander.
The Cubs scored single runs in the second, third and fifth, peppering Todd Wellemeyer (7-4) with nine hits. Mark DeRosa had an RBI single in the first and Ramirez added an RBI single in the third and sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Ramirez had been 0-for-28 before hitting a two-run, go-ahead homer in the eighth inning Saturday.
Soto's homer total is the most by a Cubs rookie since Mel Hall hit 17 in 1983, and the most for the franchise by a catcher since Randy Hundley hit 19 in 1966. Ryan Theriot had three hits and is among the league leaders with 33 multihit games.
Springer double-pumped when first baseman Albert Pujols was late covering the bag on Kosuke Fukudome's two-out comebacker in the eighth and then uncorked a wild throw to allow an unearned run in the eighth.
Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus was 0-for-4 with a strikeout, and is 0-for-24 with 10 strikeouts on the year against the Cubs.
| 
