DENVER (AP) -- It was a typical Coors Field inning, and former Rockie Darryl Kile absorbed the brunt of it.

Todd Helton and Mike Lansing each drove in three runs in a 10-run second inning to lead the Colorado Rockies to a 12-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night.

Colorado shelled Kile (2-1) for eight hits and 11 runs in just 1 2/3 innings.

	Kile

Reliever Rick Croushore (1-0), a former Cardinal who came to Colorado in the Kile trade last November, pitched three hitless innings to earn the victory after Karl struggled into the fourth.

"I thought I'd be a little too pumped up to pitch against those guys," Croushore said. "It was hard looking across there and seeing Cardinal red and I'm not wearing it. But it definitely feels good to do this against them. I got the game ball, and I'm real excited about that."

The Rockies sent 15 men to the plate in the second, collecting a club-record nine hits. During the flurry, eight straight batters reached base safely. The Cardinals chipped in with two errors, and Kile hit two batters.

Neifi Perez led off the inning by reaching on shortstop Edgar Renteria's throwing error. With one out, Karl was hit by a pitch. Tom Goodwin followed with an RBI single, Lansing a two-run single and Larry Walker an RBI double.

Jeff Cirillo was hit by a pitch, and Helton hit a three-run, 421-foot homer. Darren Bragg hit a solo homer, and Perez tripled and scored on Scott Servais' sacrifice fly. Karl singled, chasing Kile, and Goodwin singled off Justin Brunette, who made his major league debut. Lansing then got his third RBI of the inning with another single to make it 11-3.

"Darryl just never could get anything established," Cards manager Tony La Russa said. "He was wild and then he'd throw the ball down the middle of the plate. It was just kind of a nightmare inning.

"Things multiply in this ballpark pretty quickly."

Kile said he "wanted to go out and do my job, and I didn't do it. What really bothers me is, one, we lost the game and, two, it forced us to use the bullpen so much."

The Cardinals appeared to take control early, hitting three solo homers off Karl in the first. Leadoff hitter Placido Polanco, who had a career-high four hits, sent Karl's first pitch into the right-field seats. With two outs, Fernando Tatis and Jim Edmonds hit back-to-back homers, their second and fifth, respectively.

"I can't ever remember winning when my team gave up three homers in the first inning," Bell said. "Never. Not even in Little League."

Colorado got a run in its half on Walker's RBI single to make it 3-1.

St. Louis loaded the bases with no outs in the third, but Karl averted major damage, allowing only one run on Tatis' double-play grounder.

The Cardinals chased Karl in the fourth after Mike Matheny doubled, Brunette singled for his first major league hit and Polanco had an RBI single to make it 11-5.

Perez added a solo homer in the eighth.

With runners on second and third and one out in the ninth, Thomas Howard's groundout drove in Polanco.

Game notes
Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire returned to St. Louis before the game to be examined for lingering back pain. Team physician Dr. George Paletta will conduct tests Friday. McGwire missed the first two games of the season and also sat out Wednesday night's game in Houston. ... The Cards placed left-hander Jesse Orosco and right-hander Mark Thompson on the 15-day disabled list because of elbow and groin injuries, respectively. The club purchased the contract of right-hander Mike James from Triple-A Memphis and recalled left-hander Justin Brunette from Double-A Arkansas. ... Helton extended his hitting streak to 10 games. ... The Rockies wore their new purple jerseys for the first time. It was the first time they have not worn white jerseys at home since early in their inaugural season (1993), when they wore black jerseys in two home blowout losses and scrapped them.