Marquis struggled for the first time in four starts this season while facing Maddux, his old mentor from the Braves. He left after the first three batters reached in the seventh, one on his fielding error on Pierre’s sacrifice bunt and gave up seven runs — four earned, and seven hits.

“I don’t know if I struggled all day, I just got away from my game plan and left a few pitches up in the zone,” Marquis said. “Some days the mistakes are going be hit out and some days you get away with them.”

All four of Marquis’ career starts against the Cubs have come against Maddux. He’s 1-2 with a 3.90 ERA.

Pierre doubled to lead off the third, advanced on a sacrifice and scored on Walker’s infield hit to give the Cubs the lead and Jones’ homer in the fourth made it 2-0.

Pierre reached on second baseman Aaron Miles’ fielding error on a routine grounder to start the fifth, leading to Ramirez’ homer and a pair of unearned runs that put Chicago ahead 4-0.

The Cubs extended the lead to 7-0 in the seventh on Ronny Cedeno’s RBI double and Walker’s two-run single.

St. Louis got a run in the eighth on Hector Luna’s RBI double off Roberto Novoa.

Gary Bennett’s two-run double in the ninth ended Ryan Dempster’s run of 32 consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run. Dempster, who has converted 23 straight saves, last gave up an earned run on Aug. 12, 2005, at home against the Cardinals in a streak that lasted 31 1-3 innings.

Notes: Cardinals reliever Brad Thompson had to make a quick jump to his side to avoid getting hit by a bat when Michael Barrett lost his grip while striking out in the seventh. ... The Cardinals haven’t swept the Cubs at home since 2002. ... The Cardinals have sold out all nine games at new Busch Stadium, including paid attendance of 41,373 on Sunday.

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