ST. LOUIS - Pittsburgh lefthander Dave Williams had struck out Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols in both his previous at-bats Monday. He had held Pujols to one hit in 11 previous matchups, and with two outs and the go-ahead run at first, Williams had Pujols down to his final strike.

That's all Pujols needed.

Pujols' two-out, two-run double in the sixth inning propelled the Cardinals to a 4-2 victory at Busch Stadium. The win moved Tony La Russa, in his 10th season with the club, into a tie with Whitey Herzog's 822 for the second-most victories by a Cardinals manager.

Williams had a 1-0 lead, thanks to his sacrifice fly off Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter, before working Pujols for a 1-2 count. Pujols lashed a shot to the field-field wall to score Yadier Molina from third and Larry Walker from first, giving the Cardinals' the lead for good in their 10th consecutive win against the Pirates.

"It doesn't matter what happened before," said Walker, who scored two of the Cardinals' runs. "His name is Albert Pujols. That speaks volumes right there. You can strike him out twice, get him 0-2 but he still has that one strike to beat you."

La Russa wiggled loose of questions about his career record. He was more concerned about this season.

"I hesitate to say anything because it's not personal," La Russa said. "The guy (Herzog) is a great manager. We won the first game of the series, that's the significance - 2005. See what we can do this year."

Williams, who had won his past three starts entering Monday, took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. He allowed one baserunner through the first four innings, and that happened because of the first of three errors by the Pirates on Monday.

Catcher Yadier Molina led off the decisive sixth inning with a single and was moved to second on a sacrifice and to third on a groundout. Walker walked to put the go-ahead run on.

In his key at-bat, Pujols laced two foul balls in the left field seats. He fouled off a total of three pitches as he dueled Williams to a 1-2 count.

Pujols then mashed a liner to the left-field wall for a double and into a tie for National League lead with his 38th and 39th RBI.

Molina trotted home to tie the game. Walker, taking the first of a couple extra bases because of savvy running, wheeled home from first. Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson double-clutched on the relay throw from left field allowing Walker to get enough of a step that no play at the plate developed.

Pujols took third on Wilson's throw, and he scored when Wilson threw wildly on Reggie Sanders infield hit.

"I got ahead of him obviously, and I made the pitches I wanted to make," Williams said of Pujols' at-bat. "If the count had gotten 2-2 or 3-2, I would've walked him. But since I was ahead, instead of trying to throw something sloppy offspeed, I thought I'd go with a heater. He got around it, hooked it into left and scored two runs."

That helped Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter (7-2). He had to escape one more threat before turning the game over to the bullpen.

In the fifth, Pittsburgh turned a leadoff double into Williams' sacrifice fly and a 1-0 lead. Williams got his first career sacrifice fly on the eighth pitch of his fifth-inning at-bat against Carpenter. The Cardinals right-hander eased out of that inning and struck out the side in the sixth inning.

"Key situation where I needed to get a shutdown inning," Carpenter said. "And I did that."

Jason Isringhausen allowed two hits in the ninth, but no runs as he converted his 12th save of the season.