Cubs defeat rival Cards

ST. LOUIS -- Mark Prior allowed three hits in eight sharp innings, and Randall Simon and Aramis Ramirez hit back-to-back home runs in a six-run third inning as the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-4 Tuesday night.\nThe Cubs won for only the third time in 14 games at Busch Stadium the last two seasons, and moved a half-game ahead of the Cardinals for second in the tight NL Central. First-place Houston played later. It was the first of eight games in 11 days between the rivals.\nGarrett Stephenson (7-13) got knocked out early, perhaps opening the door for newly-acquired Sterling Hitchcock in the St. Louis rotation.\nHitchcock followed Stephenson, who allowed six runs on five hits in three innings, to the mound. The Cardinals have told Hitchcock he'd make a start soon. In his second appearance since being acquired from the Yankees on Friday he allowed one run on three hits in five innings.\nPrior (13-5) has dominated in five starts since coming off the 15-day disabled list from a bruised shoulder on Aug. 4. During that time he's 5-0 with two complete games and an 0.69 ERA (three earned runs in 39 innings), lowering his overall ERA to 2.47.\nHe beat the Cardinals for the first time in three career decisions, striking out six and walking one. St. Louis got only two baserunners in an inning once, and Prior retired 14 of the last 15 batters he faced.\nAlbert Pujols hit his 35th home run in the sixth to snap an 0-for-13 slump at the end of his 30-game hitting streak for St. Louis. Pujols is 6-for-11 against Prior this year with three homers and three RBIs.\nThe Cardinals were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, making them 0-for-17 the last two games. They beat the Phillies 3-0 Sunday with the help of two sacrifice flies.\nThe Cubs have added a lot of ex-Pirates recently, and Kenny Lofton, Simon and Ramirez combined for four hits and five RBIs. Ramon Martinez, a late lineup addition at second base due to Tony Womack's elbow bruise, had two hits and two RBIs.\nChicago bunched five of its hits in the third, batting around against Stephenson. Simon hit a three-run, opposite-field homer with two outs and Ramirez connected for his 20th homer on the next pitch. Earlier in the inning, Lofton had an opposite-field RBI double and Martinez followed with a run-scoring single.\nThe Cubs made it 7-0 in the fourth against Hitchcock on Paul Bako's leadoff walk and a one-out RBI single by Martinez.\nJim Edmonds hit a two-run homer off Kyle Farnsworth in the ninth, and Miguel Cairo added a sacrifice fly off Mike Remlinger.