The time-tested combination of a Chris Carpenter start, the Cincinnati Reds and a three-run home run worked wonders for the Cardinals on Sunday. Whatever the next four weeks bring the second-place Redbirds, they will always have dominance over the division leaders.

With 7 1/3 dominant innings, Carpenter defeated the Reds for a 10th consecutive start, this time because left fielder Matt Holliday reversed a sixth-inning deficit with a three-run homer that proved the difference in a 4-2 win before 43,963 at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals climbed to 71-63, still seven games behind the first-place Reds with 28 games remaining but also 12-6 against a team seemingly destined for its first postseason appearance since 1995.

"Maybe we should play the Reds every day," said closer Ryan Franklin, who worked a perfect ninth inning for his 26th save.

Holliday scorched his 25th home run against Reds starting pitcher Homer Bailey (3-3) after first baseman Albert Pujols received an intentional walk with two outs and first base open.

Holliday jumped Bailey's fourth pitch to cap a day that included a second-inning double and jacked his RBI total to 87, ninth most in the league.

"This was a much bigger game for us than it was for them," said manager Tony La Russa. "And Carp showed up, just like he always does."

Carpenter controls the deed to the Reds, who have lost nine times this season to him and rookie lefthander Jaime Garcia. Carpenter beat them for the fifth time this season and the 12th time in 15 career decisions by striking out a season-high 11 against no walks. He held the league's most prolific offense to six hits and allowed a single two-run rally built with a series of well-placed flares and broken bats. A cut fastball that bedeviled Carpenter for much of the schedule's first three months paralyzed righthanded hitters.

Most important, Carpenter (15-5) froze the game until Holliday reversed the game with the team's first three-jack in two weeks.

"Carp has pitched well all year long," Pujols said. "Our offense hasn't been consistent the way we wanted to. If our offense had been the way we wanted, some of those guys would have 20 wins by now."

The outcome represented the Cardinals' 25th come-from-behind win this season, their first since Aug. 13 in Chicago.

"We've got to win baseball games, bottom line. It's been that way the last couple weeks," said Carpenter, the first Cardinals starter other than Garcia to earn a win since Aug. 23. "This last (2-8) road trip was pretty important, too, and we didn't do the things we wanted to do."

They got it done Sunday when Holliday hit his second home run this season following an intentional walk of Pujols. His 418-foot blast left Holliday five for 19 in that situation. Despite a tortuous April and May, he now finds himself within striking distance of his fourth 100-RBI season in five years. Sunday assured him of a fourth 25-home run season.

"At the end of the year you can analyze what numbers look like," Holliday said. "If you continue to put the right approach and the work in, you typically wind up where you (belong). It's my seventh year. I figure if I do the work and put the time in, it'll be somewhere close to what I expect."

The Cardinals head to Milwaukee and Atlanta having won their third series since the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. They won five of six series against the Reds this season, including a three-game sweep last month. The Reds have lost only one series to a team other than the Cardinals since the All-Star break.

Sunday's win was only the Cardinals' second in Carpenter's last five starts, more an indictment of a sputtering offense than a retreat by last season's Cy Young Award runner-up.

On the same day Carpenter reached 200 innings for the first time since 2006, he offered his 11th consecutive quality start and lowered his ERA to 2.90.

Carpenter struck out more than eight for the first time since June 13 and reached double digits for the first time since April 21. He has not allowed more than three earned runs in a start since July 8, going 6-2 since. For a pitcher handled with caution much of the last four seasons, Carpenter now carries the look of an enforcer.

"It's been a battle all year with my mechanics. The last few times out I've started feeling better, and today was probably the closest I've felt to normal all year, which I'm excited about," Carpenter said. "This year has been for me an interesting year mechanically, so I'm going to go out and work on it and hopefully I can build off it."

A defense that conspired on three unearned runs Saturday played brilliantly behind four pitchers Sunday. Shortstop Brendan Ryan several times ranged deep into the hole to turn infield hits into outs. There was little routine about his five assists.

"We've always been about pitching and defense here," Ryan said. "The pitching has been good pretty much all year. The defense has had some down times. Today, I thought, was how we're capable of playing out there."

"Our pitchers have been there. Our defense has let them down a little bit. It happens, but not for a lack of effort," Franklin said.