ST. LOUIS - Ken Griffey came up empty again in his bid to hit his 500th homer. So did the Reds, who lost their eighth straight on the road.
Albert Pujols homered off Mike Matthews to lead off the 10th inning to give the Cardinals a 4-3 victory over the Reds on Friday night, extending their winning streak to five.
The NL Central leaders have won 14 of 18 and have won their past two games in their final at-bat after starting 0-24 when trailing after eight.
"I like the other kind (of wins), the no-brainers," manager Tony La Russa said. "If we get so far ahead, I can't mess those up."
Reminiscent of Mark McGwire's 70-homer season in 1998, flashbulbs popped throughout each of Griffey's at-bats. Otherwise, the occasion was less than a big event in St. Louis, with Busch Stadium about 10,000 seats shy of a sellout. There were more than 3,000 no-shows.
Griffey was 0-for-4, taking a called third strike in the second, lining out to shortstop in the fourth, flying out to center in the seventh and tapping out on a checked swing in the ninth. He's 3-for-17 with two RBIs in four games since his last homer Sunday against the Indians and hasn't come close to the fences.
Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter didn't shy away from the confrontation.
"I wasn't going to pitch around him," Carpenter said. "I said this the other day: If he hits the homer, he hits the homer.
"I was going to challenge him and I was going to make pitches, and I did."
Griffey's best play of the night came in centerfield, where he made a diving grab of Roger Cedeno's shallow fly for the first out in the eighth. Reds trainer Mark Mann briefly ran out to attend to Griffey, but he waved him off.
"He'll be fine," manager Dave Miley said. "I asked him in the dugout afterwards and me and Mark got on him for making us run that far out there."
Griffey, 34, is trying to become the sixth player to get to 500 before his 35th birthday. Sammy Sosa also was 34 when he hit his 500th early last season at Cincinnati.
The Cardinals tied it with a two-out rally in the ninth off closer Danny Graves, who has blown seven saves in 34 chances. The rally featured hits by pinch-hitters Marlon Anderson and Ray Lankford, and the tying run scored on Tony Womack's infield hit.
