Cubs within a half-game of second-place Cards

CHICAGO (AP) -- Feeling a bit weary after playing 15 innings, Sammy Sosa found a way to get some rest.

He hit a two-run homer in the bottom half, sending the Chicago Cubs to their clubhouse with a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the first game of a day-night doubleheader Tuesday.

"My goodness. I think it was one of the longest games we've played," Sosa said after hitting his 32nd home run to end the 4 hour, 47 minute game. It was his ninth career game-winning homer, seven with the Cubs.

"I was 0-for-5 and I never gave in. I went up there, I got one pitch to hit and that was everything," Sosa said. "After you play 15 innings, I don't think you have any energy left. But that was a big one for the team. We played so hard to be where we are."

Sosa's long homer off former teammate Jeff Fassero brought the Cubs within a half-game of the second-place Cardinals. Houston, which was tied with St. Louis for first entering play Tuesday, played a late game at Los Angeles.

Augie Odeja, recalled from the minors Monday, was 0-for-21 with the Cubs this season when he singled to left off Fassero (1-7) to start the bottom of the 15th.

One out later, Sosa connected on an 0-2 pitch.

"That's a heartbreaker," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "There were a lot of heroic moments. We were close to winning a couple of times, but couldn't pull it off. That's a tough loss."

Fernando Vina doubled to lead off the 14th -- the Cardinals' first hit since the seventh inning -- and moved to third on a fly ball before Mark Guthrie (2-3) retired Mike Matheney on a comebacker to end the threat.

Orlando Palmeiro saved the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth, leaping into the vines in left field to make a spectacular catch of Ramon Martinez's two-out drive with the bases loaded.

Jason Simontacchi, who had made 21 relief appearances for the Cardinals since his last start on June 3, retired the first 12 batters, striking out six. He left after the Cubs benefited from a controversial call and scored two unearned runs in the fifth to tie the game.

The Cubs got their first baserunner in the fifth when third base umpire Bill Hohn ruled that left fielder Albert Pujols didn't hold Aramis Ramirez's fly ball.

Pujols appeared to catch the ball, but it dropped out of his glove at the last instant as Ramirez jogged into second on the two-base error. Replays showed that Pujols squeezed the ball and as he was trying to switch it to his right hand to throw it back to the infield, he dropped the ball.

After the game, Hohn said it wasn't a routine play and that the ball dropped out of Pujols' glove, not his barehand, so it wasn't a catch. Simontacchi didn't agree.

"No doubt about it, he caught the ball," Simontacchi said. "It was a bad call, but at the same time I still have to get us out of the inning and I didn't do that."

La Russa argued to no avail, and it turned into a pivotal call. Two outs later, Alex Gonzalez doubled for the Cubs' first hit, scoring Ramirez and making it 2-1, and then Damian Miller had another double to tie the game.

St. Louis took an early 2-0 lead, scoring in the second on Chris Widger's RBI single off Ramirez's glove at third and on Jim Edmonds' 35th homer leading off the fourth.

Game notes
Edmonds' homer was just the seventh Carlos Zambrano allowed this season. ... St. Louis finished with just five hits. ... It is the second straight season the Cardinals and Cubs played a day-night doubleheader. The Cards won both games last season in the first split twinbill at Wrigley Field since 1931. Tuesday's first game was the makeup of a May 11 game that was called after four innings. ... The teams have spent plenty of time at Wrigley the last two days. Not only did Tuesday's first game last 4 hours, 47 minutes, they waited out a 4:17 rain delay before playing Monday's opener. ... Chicago's bullpen pitched eight scoreless innings of one-hit ball. ... It was the third longest game in innings played for the Cubs. They have also been in 17- and 16-inning games. The Cardinals played a 20-inning game in April.