"It was a typical scene in the St. Louis Cardinals' clubhouse. Pitcher Adam Wainwright was surrounded by reporters, discussing a victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

There is just one catch. Wainwright is Tuesday night's scheduled starter.

That was just a small part of what Cardinals manager Tony La Russa described as a "really weird game."

Pinch-hitter Wainwright scored the winning run on a throwing error, capping a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, as the Cardinals pulled off a bizarre 6-5 win over the Diamondbacks Monday night at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals used a pair of singles and took advantage of two errors by the Diamondbacks to score the three unearned runs and win for only the second time in 33 games when trailing after eighth innings.

"It had a lot of discouraging moments," La Russa said of the game. "Hard is hard. We had to reach real deep in the well to come up with the willingness to keep playing this one."

The ninth started ominously for the Cardinals. La Russa was ejected one pitch into the inning after arguing balls and strikes with home plate umpire Mark Carlson.

Did his ejection spark the rally?

"If that's the case, just think if I had been ejected early," he said, "we would not have had this."

Arizona starter Dan Haren thought La Russa was intentionally trying to delay the game to throw him off his rhythm.

"Tony's good at delaying like that," Haren said. "I've seen it before and I knew exactly what he was doing. He'll probably do it again because it looks like it works."

Moments after La Russa left the game, Yadier Molina and Brendan Ryan each singled against Diamondbacks starter Dan Haren. Arizona manager A.J. Hinch then lifted Haren in favor of reliever Aaron Heilman.

That brought up Wainwright, who laid down a bunt between third and the pitcher's mound. Heilman attempted to force pinch-runner Jaime Garcia at third base, but his throw was wild. Garcia scored, Ryan moved to third base, Wainwright advanced to second, and the Cardinals trailed 5-4. "