The St. Louis Cardinals grabbed the upper hand in the World Series on Tuesday. And a clean hand, at that.

Chris Carpenter pitched eight shutout innings as the hometown Cardinals blanked the Detroit Tigers 5-0 in Game 3 of the World Series in front of 46,513 fans at Busch Stadium.

Chris Carpenter celebrates a double play in Tuesday's 5-0 Cardinals win.
(Elise Amendola/Associated Press)

"I kept them off balance and I located," Carpenter said. "It was a nice night."

St. Louis takes a 2-1 lead into Game 4 of the best-of-seven set on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET).

"No. 1, you have to credit Chris Carpenter," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "No. 2, we have a few guys who are not swinging the bat too well."

Carpenter answered Sunday's controversial start by Detroit's Kenny Rogers with a performance befitting the reigning Cy Young Award winner, scattering three harmless singles and striking out six batters.

"What Kenny did in Game 2, Chris Carpenter did tonight," Tigers first baseman Sean Casey said. "He was pretty much lights out."

Rogers threw eight shutout innings in Sunday's 3-1 Tigers win to extend his scoreless string to 23 innings, but was suspected of doctoring the ball with a foreign substance discovered on the palm of his pitching hand. 

Rogers claimed it was simply dirt but, when the Cardinals brought it to the attention of the umpiring crew, he washed it off.

St. Louis fans razzed Rogers as he signed autographs prior to Game 3, yelling "Put some pine tar on it!" and "Scuff it up!"

"Hey, whatever works," Rogers retorted. "You should check your bats, maybe there are holes in them!"

Carpenter's only sleight of hand was overcoming a cramp in his thumb to baffle the Tigers with a steady diet of fastballs and the occasional curveball.

"He showed everything he could do," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He has got a lot of weapons — running fastballs, good command of his curveball.

"He's so strong between the ears, nothing fazes him. He's got a good head, good heart, good guts."

"It felt kind of funny," Carpenter said of the thumb, which he figured he hurt batting in the fourth inning.

"I might have just bruised it in there or something like that. We'll deal with it, but I think it will be fine."

Jim Edmonds paced the Cardinals offensively with two runs batted in.

Detroit starter Nate Robertson was tagged with the loss, allowing two runs on five hits and three walks with three strikeouts in five innings pitched.

Tigers rookie Joel Zumaya was charged with a throwing error that resulted in two unearned runs in the seventh inning.

"They took advantage of a couple of opportunities," Leyland said. "And we helped them a little bit."

Cardinals take flight in fourth

Carpenter and Robertson duelled through three scoreless innings until the Cardinals struck for two runs in the fourth inning.

Preston Wilson singled, Albert Pujols doubled and Scott Rolen walked to load the bases for Ronnie Belliard, who grounded into a forceout at home.

That brought Edmonds to the plate and he doubled to right field to score Pujols and Rolen.

"He has got that quality where, the bigger the moment, the more likely he is going to concentrate, not get distracted and produce," La Russa said of Edmonds.

"He's done that ever since he's been here. He really is a prime-time guy."

It remained 2-0 until St. Louis tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the seventh inning as David Eckstein and Wilson reached on walks and both scored when Zumaya overthrew third baseman Brandon Inge on a comebacker by Pujols.

"Things fell apart when I threw the ball down the line," Zumaya said. "I'm very angry right now.

"I'm very disappointed. I know I'm much better than to do that."

In the eighth, So Taguchi drew a leadoff walk from reliever Fernando Rodney, was bunted to second base by Carpenter, advanced to third on Eckstein's single and later scored the final run on a wild pitch by Zach Minor.

Reliever Braden Looper recorded the final three outs for the Cardinals.

With files from the Associated Press