PITTSBURGH - After a slow start, the St. Louis Cardinals are beating teams in the NL Central.

Albert Pujols hit his major league-leading 17th home run, Tony Womack had four hits and Chris Carpenter struck out a season-high nine batters as St. Louis won its third straight, 5-3 over the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday night.

St. Louis has won seven of its last 11 games against division rivals, leaving its record against the NL Central at 14-14.

"In this division, no matter who you play, you have to go out and perform every night," Pujols said. "You have to play your best against your own division, and that's what we're doing."

St. Louis (29-23) has won six of seven overall and climbed to a season-high six games over .500. The Cardinals are in the midst of 19 consecutive games against the NL Central.

"We're just trying to accumulate wins," manager Tony La Russa said.

The last of Womack's four consecutive singles came off reliever Mike Johnston (0-2) in the sixth inning and drove in John Mabry, who doubled home Edgar Renteria to break a 3-3 tie.

Womack, who went 4-for-5 for his 14th career four-hit game and his second this season, was forced out at second base after leading off the game with a single to left field. Pujols followed with a two-run shot to left that gave him a home run in four of his last five games.

Jason Isringhausen got three straight outs for his 10th save in 13 chances.

Jason Kendall extended his hitting streak to 19 games for Pittsburgh, which lost its fourth straight game.

Pirates starter Kip Wells, who has won one of his last eight starts, allowed three runs and four hits in five innings. He came out for the sixth and briefly warmed up before leaving with irritation on the tip of his right middle finger.

"Throughout the course of the game ... it was kind of annoying," Wells said. "It was affecting my ability to locate my pitches, much less throw them all early in the game. I added some pressure to my situation by walking some guys, but they're a battling team."

The Pirates tied it at 3 with two runs in the fourth. Craig Wilson and Rob Mackowiak opened the inning with singles, and Wilson scored on Bobby Hill's single off the right-field wall, with Hill going to second on right fielder Marlon Anderson's throwing error.

Randall Simon knocked in Mackowiak with a sacrifice fly before Carpenter retired Jose Castillo on a fly ball and struck out Wells.

St. Louis took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning without a hit.

Wells walked Jim Edmonds and Ray Lankford to open the inning, and Lankford was forced at second base on Renteria's groundball. Mabry hit a line drive to left field that a charging Wilson dropped for an error, with Edmonds scoring and Renteria going to third. Renteria was tagged out at home on Cody McKay's grounder to Wells, and Carpenter was retired on a groundball.

The Pirates cut the lead to 2-1 in the first when Kendall scored from second on Daryl Ward's sacrifice fly to deep left-center. Lankford caught the ball but took several extra steps toward the warning track before throwing to cutoff man Renteria. Kendall slid home ahead of Mike Matheny's tag.