Phoenix, AZ (Betting Express) - Ryan Ludwick homered and drove in three runs, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 12-7 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the rubber match of a three-game series at Chase Field.

Ludwick extended his hitting streak to 18 games dating back to last season, while Yadier Molina added three hits, two RBI and a pair of walks for the Cardinals, who have won seven of their first 10 games this season. Chris Duncan also had three hits and two RBI, while Albert Pujols drove in a pair of runs in the win.

"I think that's the main goal: to win series," Duncan said. "And we came in here and played good and ended up winning the series."

Joel Pineiro (2-0) earned the win despite giving up five runs on nine hits and three walks, with three strikeouts, in five innings of work.

Mark Reynolds and Eric Byrnes each homered for the Diamondbacks, who fell to 3-6 on the young season. Chad Tracy doubled twice and drove in a pair of runs, while Chris Young and Felipe Lopez had two hits apiece.

Jon Garland (1-1) was saddled with the loss after yielding seven runs on seven hits and five walks in 3 2/3 innings.

"I just flat out missed my spots," Garland said. "(I) walked some guys, put them on base. When they tacked on a couple of hits, it led to more runs."

St. Louis manufactured a run in the second. Duncan stroked a one-out single to center and moved to second on a Khalil Greene ground out. Molina followed with an RBI single to center to give the Cardinals the early lead.

The Cardinals took a commanding 6-0 lead with five runs in the third. Pineiro led off with a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a ground out. Colby Rasmus doubled to score Pineiro, and Pujols was intentionally walked.

Rasmus scored on Ludwick's single to left, and Duncan followed with a two-RBI double to center to increase the lead to five. Two batters later Molina scored Duncan on a single to right to cap the inning's scoring.

But the large lead didn't last long, as Pineiro surrendered four runs in the home third. Lopez and Conor Jackson hit back-to-back doubles, scoring Lopez, and Tracy doubled two batters later to make it a 6-2 game. Reynolds then launched his second homer in as many games to cut the deficit to two.

St. Louis got one back in the fourth, as Skip Schumaker led off with a double, moved up on a ground out and scored on Pujols' grounder to shortstop.

Consecutive two-out doubles from Young and Justin Upton in the fifth made it a 7-5 game.

The Cardinals went ahead by six with four runs in the sixth. Rasmus led off with a walk and scored on Pujols' double down the left-field line. Ludwick then homered to make it 10-5, and Joe Thurston hit an RBI single later in the inning, scoring Greene, who reached on an error.

Byrnes cut Arizona's deficit to five on a leadoff homer off Trever Miller in the home sixth. Later in the inning, Tracy lifted a sacrifice fly to right that scored Lopez, although Stephen Drew was thrown out at third to end the inning.

Schumaker's sacrifice fly in the eighth, scoring Molina, capped the scoring for the Cardinals.

Game Notes

St. Louis won last year's season series, 4-3...The Cardinals placed 2005 NL Cy Young Award winner Chris Carpenter on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left rib cage suffered in Tuesday's game...St. Louis went 7-for-19 with runners in scoring position, while Arizona went 4-for-10.