ST. LOUIS — John Smoltz showed his St. Louis Cardinals debut was no fluke Friday night, striking out six and allowing a run in six innings in his first home start.
Albert Pujols' 41st homer leading off the bottom of the ninth made it a successful night for the rest of the team in a 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals.
Pujols hit a 1-1 pitch from Jason Bergmann (2-4) well over the left field wall for his eighth career walkoff homer and first since July 13, 2006. The NL Central leaders have won 16 of 20 despite recent offensive struggles, leaning on a rotation bolstered by the 42-year-old Smoltz.
Khalil Greene's first career pinch-hit homer tied it at 2 in the eighth against Nationals starter John Lannan, who allowed two runs and four hits in eight innings to rebound from the worst start of his career. He lasted 1 2-3 innings and gave up seven runs in an 11-9 loss at home to Milwaukee.
Jason Motte (4-4) worked around a one-out double by Elijah Dukes in the ninth.
Bergmann has allowed seven runs in 2 1-3 innings in his last five appearances.
Greene's sixth homer came in his first at-bat since Aug. 20. It was his first long ball since he connected in three straight games at Kansas City from June 19-21.
Josh Bard, a .385 career hitter against St. Louis, put the Nationals ahead 2-1 with an RBI double off Blake Hawksworth in the seventh. Dukes doubled twice and went 3 for 4.
The Cardinals won despite going 1 for 5 with runners in scoring position for a two-day total of 2 for 15. The comeback allowed them to avoid consecutive losses for the first time since July 25-26.
Smoltz, released by the Red Sox earlier this month after going 2-5 with an 8.33 ERA, was an instant hit before his first home start with the Cardinals. He drew a nice ovation as he crossed the field heading toward the dugout, then most in a crowd of 40,033 gave him a standing ovation before his first at-bat leading off the third.
Smoltz struggled only in the third, allowing two hits and a sacrifice fly by Pete Orr. He retired the last seven hitters with only one ball out of the infield.
The Cardinals loaded the bases with no outs in the second but settled for one run on Yadier Molina's double-play ball.
NOTES: Cardinals 2B Julio Lugo played in shallow right field in an exaggerated infield shift for Adam Dunn's at-bats and threw him out twice. ... Dunn struck out twice against Smoltz and is 2 for 16 with a homer against him.