Arizona's Brandon Webb finally saw his streak end while St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols just keeps his going.

Webb had his scoreless inning string stopped at 42 in the first inning of the Diamondbacks' 3-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night. Pujols homered for the fifth consecutive game in the Cardinals' 6-4 win over the Florida Marlins.

Last year's NL Cy Young winner, Webb (14-8) gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings. He struck out five and walked one to win his sixth consecutive start. The right-hander fell 17 innings shy of Orel Hershiser's major league record of 59 straight scoreless innings set in 1988.

"I was feeling it a little earlier in the day with all the attention," said Webb, who kept Arizona 3Z\x games ahead of second-place San Diego in the NL West. "It was fun while it lasted. I just hope we start a new one."

Pujols is still three games shy of tying the record for consecutive games with a homer, but he has another milestone all to himself.

Pujols' two-run shot in the first inning gave him 30 for the season. He's the first player in major league history to hit at least 30 homers in each of his first seven seasons.

"I think since his rookie year he's had us scratching our heads in amazement at the quality of his baseball, and not just his hitting," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. "One way to measure how great a player is in our game is you can compare some of the numbers with history.

"This is consistency and it speaks to strength of mind, I think, and competitiveness more than talent."

Webb's shutout streak was the fifth-longest since 1940, behind Hershiser's 59 innings, Don Drysdale's 58, Bob Gibson's 47 and Sal Maglie's 45.

The streak began on July 20 at Chicago, when Webb pitched a scoreless seventh inning after giving up two runs in the sixth. He had made five starts since then, including three straight shutouts, the first big league pitcher to throw three consecutive shutouts since Roger Clemens for Toronto in August 1998.

"It was a streak that was amazing to me," Webb said.

It didn't take the Diamondbacks long to answer against Jeff Suppan (8-11). Chris Young hit a 345-foot shot down the left-field line for his seventh leadoff homer this season. Orlando Hudson followed with a triple and scored on Tony Clark's sacrifice fly to give Webb a 2-1 lead.

Pujols' latest heroics came with him hobbling around the basepaths with a hamstring injury.