"After hitting another walk-off home run Sunday, Albert Pujols said that pitcher Chris Carpenter was perhaps the player of the game.

"The player of the game shouldn't have been myself," said Pujols, whose 10th-inning homer gave the Cardinals a 3-2 win over the Cubs. "Chris threw a complete game. I'm kind of at the point, I keep telling him, 'Man, we need to score some runs for you.'

"He's pitching pretty well out there. But he knows it's a long season too, and he's just like me ... as long as we win the game. It doesn't matter if you go 0 for four or pitch nine innings and don't get the win, but as a team we get the win. That's the most important thing."

Carpenter tossed nine innings before turning it over to reliever Fernando Salas, who picked up the win. The Cardinals won for only the fourth time in Carpenter's team-high 13 starts. He allowed seven hits and two earned runs, marking his third quality start in his last four outings. In that stretch, covering 28 1/3 innings, Carpenter has surrendered only nine earned runs total.

But while the pitcher's ERA fell to 4.25 this season, his record remained 1-5. His only win of the season was May 10.

"I control what I control and that's it," Carpenter said. "I threw the ball the best I could today ... it's just a great win. I've said all along, I know that these guys are pulling and trying as hard as they can, but that's not the point. The point is to win ballgames.

"I don't care if it's 2-1, 7-6, it doesn't matter to me. I'm going to continue to go and do what I need to do and hopefully we can continue to do what we did today and that's win a game.""