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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 notes
Renteria 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.
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Baseball Scoreboard
St. Louis Clubhouse
Pittsburgh Clubhouse
RECAPS
Texas 9
Baltimore 1
Texas 6
Baltimore 5
(2nd game)
Boston 8
Cleveland 6
NY Yankees 10
Toronto 2
Detroit 10
Chi. White Sox 3
Anaheim 5
Tampa Bay 2
Oakland 5
Minnesota 3
Seattle 11
Kansas City 3
Chicago Cubs 2
Cincinnati 1
Montreal 1
Philadelphia 0
St. Louis 11
Pittsburgh 1
NY Mets 10
Milwaukee 2
Florida 5
Atlanta 4
San Francisco 9
Houston 5
Arizona 5
Los Angeles 4
Colorado 6
San Diego 3
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