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GAME LOG
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Every game it's a tossup whether Rick Ankiel is a better hitter or pitcher.
The 20-year-old rookie led a three-homer surge that helped St. Louis set a major league record for April, and also threw seven scoreless innings as the Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-0 Wednesday night.
|  | | Fernando Tatis is congratulated by teammates after hitting the Cardinals' 50th home run in the month of April. |
Manager Tony La Russa is just as impressed about Ankiel's stroke as he is his curveball.
He's batting .500 with a double, triple and five RBI in 12 at-bats.
"He'd have a chance to make it as a hitter," La Russa said. "His stance, his weight transfer, all the little absolutes, he's got them."
Pitching coach Dave Duncan is just as enamored with Ankiel's pitching. Ankiel allowed three hits and has thrown 14 scoreless innings his last three starts to lower his ERA to 2.16.
Ankiel struck out four and walked three, exhibiting much better control than his last outing when he walked seven in five innings in a victory over the Padres.
"He's going to get even better," Duncan said. "He's doing everything pretty much on raw talent."
Ankiel's top priority, of course, is pitching.
"This time I felt like if I missed, I was able to throw a strike if I needed to," he said. "Last game, I wasn't."
The Brewers were impressed.
"Damn his curveball," said Marquis Grissom, who was 0-for-3 with a walk. "His fastball is good. When you've got a good No. 1 like that, you've got to go out there and pitch."
Ankiel (3-1) wasn't about to brag about his day at the plate.
"It was one of them things," Ankiel said. "He kind of threw me a cookie, so I got lucky."
Jim Edmonds and Fernando Tatis also connected as the Cardinals reached 50 homers in April, breaking the mark of 49 set by the 1997 Cleveland Indians. They have four games left this month to chase the record for homers in any month, 58 by the 1987 Baltimore Orioles.
"It's nice for this club to make a mark like that," La Russa said. "I just don't want it to change our approach. The guys, they hear about it and they read about it too much about it already."
Ankiel hit a three-run shot for his second homer in the fourth. Edmonds had a leadoff homer in the fifth, and Tatis broke the record with a two-run shot later in the inning.
All three homers came off Steve Woodard (0-3), who hasn't won in 14 starts since July 16, 1999.
The Cardinals have homered in 17 straight games, tying the team record set in 1998, with 40 homers in that span. They've connected in all but one of their 21 games.
Edmonds, who entered the game in a 1-for-14 slump, had a sacrifice fly for the game's first run in the third inning. Tatis singled to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games with five homers and 17 RBI in that span.
Woodard lasted five innings and allowed seven runs, six earned, on seven hits. He's 0-6 with a 5.75 ERA since his last victory.
"Bad pitches got hit," Woodard said. "There are some good hitters there, but they're going to make an out seven times out of 10."
Game notes
Woodard also lost to the Cardinals and Darryl Kile on April 8, giving up four earned runs in five innings in a 10-8 loss. ... The Cardinals hit 194 home runs last season, fifth best in the NL. ... The Cardinals are 4-1 against the Brewers with four straight victories. ... Ankiel cooled off Geoff Jenkins, who had been 8-for-16 with three homers and seven RBI in his previous four games. Jenkins struck out, tapped out to the mound and flied out to left his three at-bats against Ankiel. ... The Brewers are 1-7 with one game to go on a nine-game trip, their second-longest of the year. ... Ankiel is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA in six starts and 35 career innings at Busch Stadium.
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