Cardinals reliever Kyle McClellan has lived here all his life, 26 years' worth, and he admitted he was curious to see how the Busch Stadium house would receive its recently fallen warriors.

But, after the Cardinals' dismal 2-8 journey to Pittsburgh, Washington and Houston, the Busch fans, a sellout house of 43,540, celebrated their heroes Friday night as if they had gone 8-2 on the trip, and the patrons were scrambling to toss back Brandon Phillips foul balls if they had a chance. The Cardinals' 3-2 win over Cincinnati was performed in a playoff-type atmosphere, said a couple of Cardinals relievers. And the Cardinals, still seven games behind Cincinnati in the division race and 5½ out of the wild-card lead, executed in playoff-style fashion.

Lefthanded Jaime Garcia did the heavy lifting, working the first 62/3 innings besides getting two hits. Then, Mitchell Boggs got a strikeout of Drew Stubbs to escape the seventh with the tying run at third.

After McClellan walked Joey Votto and Scott Rolen with one out in the eighth, he retired the next two hitters. And Ryan Franklin, gaining only his fourth save since July 28, went through a 1-2-3 ninth as the Cardinals snapped their losing streak at five games.

"Just the energy today was unbelievable," said McClellan. "Honestly, I think that's what we really needed. We come off a hard road trip and we were ready to turn the page.

"But to have the fans behind us and the energy right out of the gate was real important. The whole game they were on their feet. It was a neat atmosphere.

"The fans were just as upset (with the 2-8 trip) as we are," said McClellan. "I've lived here my whole life. They want to win. And we want to win. You come off the road trip and I was kind of wondering ... were we going to have any fans here? Were they going to show up? Were they going to be loud?

"This is why they say they're the greatest fans in baseball," Boggs said, "They were awesome. They were there from the first pitch on. We were all wondering what it was going to be like."

Given Franklin's role as the ninth-inning man generally assigned to protect slim leads, he had a bit different perspective on the crowd, but was still appreciative.

"Any time I go in there, the crowd gets going and it helps me get going," he said. "The last three outs ... they get fired up and I get fired up."

Franklin said he wasn't surprised by anything he heard Friday because he said, "I don't think they'd come here and boo their own people. They were into every pitch. Cheering whenever we do good and booing the bad guys."

Perhaps it isn't the best thing to do to check the standings every day when a team has fallen so far off the respective paces. But McClellan admitted he was keeping track of all the teams ahead of the Cardinals in both divisional and wild-card races.

"I'd be lying to you if I told you I didn't know who was doing what," he said. "But, ultimately what it comes to is we've got to take care of our business. We have to win and keep winning. We can do it."

Asked if Friday's win might be the start of something big, McClellan said, "It's got to be the start of something, because, if not, then we're running out of time.

"We all know that. We knew it on the road trip. We have the ability. We have the talent. We have the players. We have the management and staff. It just didn't come together on that road trip.

"We've put ourselves in a deep hole but we've got nothing to do but fight and give everything we've got to get out of it."

There are 30 games left and the Cardinals would have to win 20 to get to 90 victories for the season.

Manager Tony La Russa's mantra all along has been to win series. Franklin, who has four of his 23 saves against Cincinnati, has the same idea.

"Any win wipes away consecutive losses," Franklin said, "because you've got that chance to go on to consecutive wins.

"We're looking to win series and we pretty much have got to win every series. We know Cincinnati is a great ballclub and they're not going to let up.

"We just have to take care of what we can take of here. We've got 30 games left. If we win 20 of them, or more than 20, we'll be looking pretty good."