Weaver walked Delgado in the fourth, and Green’s one-out double kicked up chalk on the right-field line. Valentin hit the next pitch just over a leaping Pujols at first base for a two-run double that put New York ahead.

But while the Mets have scored in 10 innings during the series, seven times St. Louis has responded with at least one run in its next at-bat.

Sure enough, Glavine couldn’t hold the lead. Pujols pulled a 2-2 pitch barely over the left-field fence in the fourth, his first home run since Game 1 against the Padres and his 12th overall in the postseason.

“Albert just got enough of it, and you get something going,” La Russa said. “We were sitting on zero and that got us going and really perked us up.”

With two outs, Scott Rolen walked, Jim Edmonds singled and Belliard bounced a tying single through the right side as Delgado broke for first base instead of toward the ball.

Glavine retired Weaver with the bases loaded to end the inning, but the Cardinals chased him in the fifth and took a 3-2 lead.

Glavine threw only 40 of his 80 pitches for strikes, allowing three runs and seven hits in four-plus innings and failing to tie former Atlanta teammate John Smoltz for the most wins in postseason history at 15.

“He had the one tough inning obviously in the fourth, but outside of that I thought he pitched pretty well,” Randolph said.

Left-hander Pedro Feliciano escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, keeping the score 3-2. But La Russa sent the left-handed hitting Duncan up for Weaver in the sixth against Feliciano, and Duncan drove a 3-2 delivery down the right-field line to make it 4-2.

“Once I got him to 3-2, I knew in a close ballgame like that he couldn’t walk me,” said Duncan, the son of Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan. “He happened to leave a breaking ball up.”

Notes: Eckstein appeared to hurt himself on a diving stop in the first. He was checked by La Russa and a trainer, but stayed in the game. ... Ex-Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog, who led the team to its last World Series title in 1982, threw out the first pitch.

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