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PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ The Philadelphia Phillies and the City of
Philadelphia are working on a plan to replace Veterans Stadium with
a new ballpark.
Don't expect St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Andy Benes to throw a
party when the Vet closes down.
"I've always pitched well here," said Benes, who got his first
major league win at the stadium in 1989. "When you pitch well
somewhere, there's some confidence that comes with it."
Benes pitched well at the Vet again on Tuesday night, going
seven strong innings without surrendering a walk in an 8-2 win over
the Phillies. He even added a home run, the second of his career in
Philadelphia. It was the seventh overall of his 11-year career.
"Just don't expect a third here," said Benes, who hit his
first Vet homer in 1991 off of Danny Cox. "I've gone nine years
between home runs here. When I hit a home run, it's the blind
squirrel theory. You know there is some luck involved."
St. Louis manager Tony LaRussa was especially pleased about
Benes' second outing without a walk.
"That's a formula that gives you a great chance to win games,"
LaRussa said. "He made some great pitches."
Benes, who is 17-6 against the Phillies, knew he had to keep his
walks down, especially after surrendering 10 hits to the top four
batters in Philadelphia's lineup.
"I'm not naive enough to think things were under control the
whole time," Benes said. "When you give up 10 hits, you'd better
not walk anyone."
Jim Edmonds homered and drove in three runs for the Cardinals,
who have now won all four meetings with the Phillies this season.
His 442-foot homer in the first was his 13th of the season and just
the 16th homer in the right-field upper deck in the 29-year history
of Veterans Stadium.
But while LaRussa was impressed by the distance, he was even
more encouraged by Edmonds' demeanor after hitting it.
"There were no theatrics," LaRussa said. "He just dropped his
head and ran the bases. He was very professional."
When asked if it was the longest homer he ever hit, the
outfielder shrugged.
"That's not important, I don't sit around and talk about those
kinds of things," he said. "We just wanted to give Andy a couple
of runs."
Benes (3-2) allowed two runs and 10 hits and struck out eight.
He extended the Cardinals lead to 3-1 in the fifth with his seventh
homer in 641 career at-bats.
Robert Person (3-2) allowed seven runs and six hits in 6 1-3
innings. He also hit a pair of batters, and they both scored.
Philadelphia has lost four straight and five of seven.
J.D. Drew, the object of Philadelphia fans' ire when he failed
to sign with the Phillies in 1997, was hit by a pitch in the
second, advanced on Craig Paquette's double and scored on Eli
Marrero's grounder.
Drew added an RBI groundout in the sixth for a 4-1 lead, and the
Cardinals added three runs in the seventh on Edmonds' two-run
single and Edgar Renteria's RBI double.
"It's big anytime you can put some runs between you and this
team," Edmonds said of the Phillies. "The key was to just keep
scoring."
Renteria added the eighth run in the ninth on an RBI single by
Ray Lankford. Renteria was 3-for-4 with three runs scored.
Philadelphia, which got all its offense from the top of the
order, scored on Mickey Morandini's RBI double in the third and
Scott Rolen's run-scoring single in the seventh.
The first four hitters in the Philadelphia lineup were 10-for-16
with two runs and two RBIs. Doug Glanville and Morandini were both
3-for-4.
"We had a couple of chances, but we just couldn't get to
Benes," Phillies manager Terry Francona said.
Notes: The crowd of 18,399 was the smallest for a game involving
the Cardinals this season. ... Morandini is now 25-for-59 against
Benes and Glanville is 13-for-28 in his career. "It's pretty
impressive when you have 60 at-bats and are hitting .420 against a
guy," Benes said of Morandini, his 1988 Olympic teammate. "He's
there to keep me humble, I guess." ... The loudest cheers of the
night came from those listening to the Flyers-Devils playoff game
on the radio. Every time the Flyers scored, the crowd roared
"Let's Go Flyers!"
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