(Sports Network) - The St. Louis Cardinals will try to keep their playoff hopes alive this afternoon in the finale of a three-game series with the Florida Marlins at Busch Stadium.

The Cardinals had lost six of seven, including a setback in Friday's opener, before posting a 5-3 victory on Saturday night. Todd Wellemeyer threw a season-high eight solid innings, and Albert Pujols slugged a two-run homer in the victory.

Pujols leads the majors with a .360 average -- four points better than Atlanta's Chipper Jones -- and has a hit in 16 of his last 18 games. Pujols is hitting .464 (32-for-69) in that span with 10 multi-hit games.

Ryan Ludwick added a pair of hits, while Felipe Lopez drove in a pair of runs for the Cardinals, who still trail Milwaukee in the National League wild card race by six games.

Adam Wainwright will try to win his fourth straight decision today for St. Louis. Wainwright, who turned 27 last Sunday, defeated Arizona on Tuesday by allowing just a run and three hits over 5 1/3 innings.

The right-hander is 8-3 with a 2.97 earned run average this year for the Cardinals. He has faced the Marlins three times in his career, just one of those starts, and has a 2.00 ERA against them without a decision.

Josh Johnson will try to stay undefeated when he starts for the Marlins.

Johnson is 4-0 with a 3.25 ERA in 10 starts this year, lasting at least six innings in eight of those outings. The right-hander is returning to the club after missing most of 2007 and the early portion of 2008 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

The 24-year-old righty got a no-decision versus Atlanta on Monday, allowing three runs on nine hits over six innings while striking out eight.

Johnson has a 2.58 ERA in six road starts this year and has never faced the Cardinals before.

He will try to help the Marlins to their fourth win in six games. Josh Willingham and Dan Uggla each homered for the Marlins last night, as Florida fell 10 games back in the wild card race.

The Marlins also trail first-place New York by 7 1/2 games in the NL East.

The Cardinals are 13-5 versus the Marlins since the start of the 2006 season, having not dropped back-to-back tests versus the Marlins since August 5-6, 2003.