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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Tony La Russa is more impressed by the fact
that his St. Louis Cardinals are a season-best 11 games over .500
than he is about the team increasing its NL Central lead by five
games in a five-day span.
"I really don't pay attention to that," La Russa said after
Saturday's 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. "I mean,
that's really not how you play the season and not what you focus on
this time of the year."
Mark McGwire hit his 24th home run and J.D. Drew hit a three-run
shot, helping St. Louis extend its winning streak to a season-high
six games.
The victory, coupled with Cincinnati's loss at San Diego,
increased the Cardinals' lead in the NL Central to 6{ games. The
Cardinals (39-28) are off to their best start since 1987, when they
began 41-26 on the way to the NL pennant.
"You need to accumulate a high win total and assume that
something else will happen," said La Russa, who has won four
division titles with Oakland and one with the Cardinals. "Plus-11
is our high for the year, so that's much more pleasing to me. We
could be a game ahead, and I'd still be happy."
Andy Benes (7-3) won his third straight start, allowing two runs
and seven hits in six innings, including Gary Sheffield's two-run
homer in the fifth.
The right-hander had a season-high 10 strikeouts for the second
consecutive outing en route to his second victory in 11 career
decisions at Dodger Stadium -- and his first since his rookie season
with San Diego, when he beat then-reigning Cy Young winner Orel
Hershiser 1-0 on Sept. 24, 1989.
"I felt like the odds were in my favor," Benes said. "I've
thrown a lot of pretty decent games here, but have been on the
wrong end. You know you're not going to score a lot of runs against
their pitching. But today we had two guys on when we hit a home run
and they had one guy on."
Sheffield led off the eighth with a double against Matt Morris,
continued to third on right fielder Eric Davis' error and scored on
Shawn Green's groundout to make it 4-3. But Dave Veres pitched a
1-2-3 ninth for his 13th save in 16 chances.
After giving up a leadoff single in the fifth inning to Edgar
Renteria and hitting Jim Edmonds with a pitch, Darren Dreifort
(4-5) struck out McGwire and Ray Lankford back-to-back for the
second time. But Drew hit a letter-high 0-2 fastball to
right-center for his 11th homer and a 3-0 lead.
"I've got to make a better pitch than that," Dreifort said.
"But Edmonds takes first base on a ball that didn't hit him and
missed him by 10 inches. Otherwise, we're still out there playing
right now. Little things make a difference."
The injury-plagued Dodgers lost for the fifth time in seven
games despite getting third baseman Adrian Beltre off the disabled
list. Then there is the matter of those suspensions from the brawl
with Wrigley Field fans back on May 16. The hearings will take
place in Houston during the middle of the week.
"With everything that's happening to us right now, it's like a
hockey team with five guys in the penalty box and the other team
has a power play -- every day," Dreifort said. "They're going to
come right at you with all they've got, and we've got to shoot back
at them with all we've got."
McGwire made it 4-2, driving Antonio Osuna's first pitch of the
seventh inning to left field for his 546th career homer. He is two
shy of Mike Schmidt for seventh place on the career list, and
attempting to become the first player to win three consecutive home
run titles since Schmidt did it in 1976.
Dreifort, who pitched a two-hit shutout against the Cardinals on
May 12, gave up singles to his first two batters of the game before
striking out Edmonds, McGwire and Lankford in succession. The
right-hander made it five in a row by fanning Drew and Mike Matheny
to start the second inning.
Dreifort lost for the fourth time in five starts despite
finishing with a season-high nine strikeouts, one off his career
high. He gave up three runs and eight hits in five innings.
Game notes
McGwire has struck out six times in 10 career at-bats
against Dreifort, who surrendered one of McGwire's 65 homers last
season on May 22 at Dodger Stadium. ... The Cardinals improved
their league-best record in day games to 16-5, but are only 23-23
at night. ... The Dodgers activated 3B Adrian Beltre, who has been
on the DL since May 29 because of a strained right hamstring. ...
When Benes walked Green in the third, it marked the 48 consecutive
game in which Green reached base safely.
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Detroit 8
Cleveland 6
Texas 5
Tampa Bay 0
Chi. White Sox 10
NY Yankees 9
Toronto 11
Boston 10
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Baltimore 3
Seattle 12
Minnesota 3
Oakland 10
Kansas City 4
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San Francisco 6
Houston 4
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Los Angeles 3
San Diego 3
Cincinnati 1
Florida 4
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Philadelphia 9
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Colorado 14
Arizona 5
Milwaukee 3
NY Mets 2
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