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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. LOUIS (AP) – The St. Louis Cardinals, the team that's
supposed to be worried about wild pitches, won their home opener on
one.
Jose Jimenez, an ex-Cardinal, threw a fastball over the head of
catcher Brent Mayne with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth
inning to hand St. Louis a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Monday. Ray Lankford scored easily from third.
|  | | Umpire Robert Drakes makes the call as Ray Lankford scores the winning run on a wild pitch by Rockies reliever Jose Jimenez in the ninth. |
"The ball that Jose threw just kind of took off," Rockies
manager Buddy Bell said. "That happens when you have a pitcher
with a lot of movement. It was a bad time for that to happen."
The Cardinals have won four in a row after sweeping Arizona over
the weekend, including an on-target start from 21-year-old Rick
Ankiel – who threw nine wild pitches in the postseason – Sunday.
They got swept in their season-opening series at Colorado, and
outscored 32-11.
"The most consistent thing we can say about our club is we play
good defense," manager Tony La Russa said.
St. Louis' home opener, played before a sellout crowd of 48,702,
was nothing like the opening series on the road. The Cardinals
entered the game batting .313 and the Rockies .347, but the teams
combined for only 11 hits.
Rookie Albert Pujols hit a two-run home run for the Cardinals
and Larry Walker had a two-run shot for the Rockies.
Bobby Bonilla, activated from the disabled list for his first
game of the season, doubled on the first pitch from Gabe White
(0-1) in the ninth and J.D. Drew pinch-ran.
Drew beat the throw to third on Lankford's sacrifice bunt and
Jimenez intentionally walked Pujols to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Larry Sutton bounced into a forceout at home for the first out
before Jimenez's wild pitch.
Mike Timlin (1-0), the Cardinals' fourth pitcher, got two outs
in the ninth.
The Rockies missed a chance to take the lead in the ninth when Ron Gant doubled to left-center off Timlin with one out and Jeff Cirillo on first. Cirillo was an easy out at the plate with second
baseman Fernando Vina relaying home from center fielder Jim
Edmonds.
"That was all Vina," Edmonds said. "I just threw the ball in.
He deserves all the credit."
Pujols, who leads the Cardinals with 10 RBI, connected off Denny Neagle in the second.
"He threw me a pitch I wanted and I just hit it," Pujols said.
"It happened so quick, I couldn't explain it."
Pujols, 21, who played most of his first professional season at
the Class A level last year, was 7-for-14 with a homer, three
doubles and eight RBI in a three-game sweep at Arizona over the
weekend.
Walker, who leads the Rockies with 12 RBI, hit his fourth homer
off Andy Benes in the sixth – with a broken bat – to tie the score.
Walker followed through on his swing with the stub of the bat after
hitting a 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall.
"Obviously, I've broken my bat and gotten hits off the wall
before, but not out of the park," Walker said. "I'm glad it
happened here and not at Coors Field because then it would be
leading off ESPN tonight."
Benes, who allowed 10 runs in 2 2/3 innings at Colorado in his
first start, gave up two runs on three hits in six innings. The
Rockies only had one other runner in scoring position against him
"I didn't pitch very well in Colorado, but I felt like the
numbers were a little inflated," Benes said. "I pitched a lot
better."
Neagle, who beat Benes in the second game of the season, allowed
two runs on four hits in six innings and had six strikeouts.
"The only mistake was the pitch to Pujols," Neagle said. "Not
only because he hit it out, but because it was a pitch that I
didn't want to throw."
Mark McGwire, who missed the previous four games with a sore
right knee, was 0-for-3 and played six innings at first base.
McGwire, who is hitless in 10 at-bats this season, had a pair of
warning-track fly balls and struck out.
Game notes
The Rockies' Todd Helton, who won the batting title with a
.372 average last year, is 6-for-26 (.231) thus far. ... Pujols'
homer was the 1,500th against Colorado pitching. ... Vina was hit
by a pitch for the third time this season to open the first. He was
hit a major league-leading 28 times last season, the most by a
Cardinals player since 1910. ... The national anthem was a
harmonica duet with Hall of Famer Stan Musial and Richard Hayman,
conductor of the Saint Louis Symphony Pops. Will Clark, who retired
after last season, threw out the first pitch to prolific author
John Grisham.
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Cardinals trade Mabry to Marlins, activate Bonilla
RECAPS
Toronto 8
Tampa Bay 1
Chi. White Sox 9
Cleveland 2
NY Yankees 13
Kansas City 4
Minnesota 11
Detroit 5
NY Mets 9
Atlanta 4
Cincinnati 8
Pittsburgh 2
St. Louis 3
Colorado 2
Montreal 7
Chicago Cubs 5
Philadelphia 5
Florida 4
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