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Tuesday, Sep. 12 7:05pm ET
Rain makes Kile better in Cards' win | |||||
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RECAP
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GAME LOG
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- A rain delay of 1 hour, 44 minutes would hurt most pitchers. It made Darryl Kile better. Kile won his fourth consecutive start and Mike Matheny drove in three runs Tuesday night as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-1. Kile opened the game by putting five of the first eight batters on base. "He told us he felt great and wanted to go back out," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "We said we'd let him, but we were going to watch him. He had a lot better command of his stuff when he went back after the delay." He was much sharper when he came back out and cruised to his 18th win. "I've never seen that before," said Matheny, the Cardinals' catcher. "I've never seen a guy sit for that long, come back and pitch better than he had before." Mark McGwire grounded to shortstop in the first inning, making him 1-for-4 with one home run in five plate appearances since he was activated from the disabled list last week. McGwire, who can't play the field because of patella tendinitis in his right knee, was listed as a left fielder and was replaced by Craig Paquette after the top of the first. It appeared that McGwire was hobbling as he left the field but La Russa said that's just the way McGwire is moving because of the injury. McGwire jogged slowly to first on the routine out. "He's smart about it," La Russa said. "He's not going to push it. He limps. You saw it last night when he ran the bases after the home run. He can't run without limping." Coupled with Cincinnati's 2-1 loss to Chicago, the Cardinals lowered their magic number for clinching the NL Central to eight. St. Louis has won nine of 12, opening a 10-game lead, the largest among the six division leaders. "I know I'm excited about it," Kile said. "We're on a little bit of a roll. We've won a bunch of series and we're trying to get better with every series. We have a chance to get to the playoffs and a chance to be competitive in the playoffs. That's what it's all about." Kile (18-9) gave up an unearned run and five hits in six innings. "He's tough," Pittsburgh manager Gene Lamont said. "He got the big lead and he buried us." Dan Serafini (2-4) gave up five runs and nine hits in five innings. Fernando Tatis put St. Louis ahead with an RBI double in the first, and the Cardinals made it 4-0 in the second on run-scoring doubles by Edgar Renteria and Paquette along with Matheny's RBI single. Tatis homered in the fifth off Serafini, and Matheny connected in the sixth off Matt Skrmetta. Renteria made a run-scoring throwing error in the sixth on Alex Ramirez's grounder to shortstop. St. Louis increased the lead to 11-1 in the seventh, helped by errors by third baseman Enrique Wilson and center fielder Adrian Brown. Shawon Dunston, Renteria and Paquette hit run-scoring singles and Matheny had an RBI double. Game notesRenteria extended his hitting streak to 12 games. ... The Pirates have lost four consecutive games since a season-best eight-game winning streak. ... The Pirates made three errors after going 54 consecutive innings without one. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard St. Louis Clubhouse Pittsburgh Clubhouse RECAPS Texas 9 Baltimore 1
Texas 6
St. Louis 11
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