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ST. LOUIS — Chris Carpenter survived seven-plus tough innings and Matt Holliday put the Cardinals ahead for good with a first-inning double in his home debut as the Cardinals beat the Dodgers, 6-1, on Monday night at Busch Stadium.

Carpenter used four double plays in seven innings to escape several jams as he won his fourth straight decision to improve to 9-3 on the season. The righty gave up nine hits and had multiple baserunners in four of his eight innings but was aided by the four double plays, including a nifty 3-6-3 twin killing by Albert Pujols and Brendan Ryan to end the seventh inning.

The former Cy Young Award winner, who hasn’t lost since a 6-3 setback to San Francisco on June 30, left after a leadoff double by Manny Ramirez in the eighth. Carpenter lowered his ERA to 2.19.

Holliday, who finished 1-for-3 with an RBI, a run scored and a walk, has now doubled in each of his first four games with the Cardinals. He received a lengthy standing ovation before batting with a runner on first and two outs in the first and promptly doubled off the center-field wall to score Mark DeRosa and put the Cardinals ahead, 1-0.

Each of the Cardinals’ newly acquired players — DeRosa, Holliday and Julio Lugo — had an RBI hit. An infield single by Lugo in the second made it 2-0 before a home run by DeRosa in the seventh made it 3-1. The home run for DeRosa was his fifth with the Cardinals, all of which have come in the past seven games.

Ryan went 4-for-4 with a double and two RBIs for the second four-hit game of his career, and outfielder Rick Ankiel continued his hot streak with a 2-for-4 night that included an RBI double in the Cardinals’ four-run seventh inning that blew the game open. From: By B.J. Rains / MLB.com

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