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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Jim Edmonds made up for a quiet opener with a home run, double and three RBI as the St. Louis Cardinals, again missing Mark McGwire, overpowered the Chicago Cubs 10-4 Wednesday
night.
|  | | Jim Edmunds trots around the bases after his home run. |
Edmonds, acquired from Anaheim on March 23, was disappointed
after walking twice and striking out twice in an 0-for-3 opener. He
again walked twice, but also hit a two-run homer to the opposite
field in left in the first inning and had an RBI double in the
third.
Ray Lankford also homered and even reliever Rick Ankiel had an
RBI triple for the Cardinals, who haven't missed McGwire's power a
bit. St. Louis has outscored the Cubs 17-5 the first two games with
five homers.
McGwire hasn't played due to a lower back strain, although he
took batting practice Wednesday and expects to play on Thursday.
Early-season troubles continued for the Cubs' Sammy Sosa, who
was 0-for-4 with two popups and two groundouts. Sosa, who drove in
his first run with a groundout in the sixth, is 2-for-15.
The Cubs are struggling with a 1-3 record and only 10 runs the
first four games. Henry Rodriguez also is 2-for-16 and has seven
strikeouts.
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Cards a hot ticket
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ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals couldn't be a hotter
ticket despite three so-so years, selling a team-record 2.6 million
tickets before opening day.
The team sold 2,604,109 tickets, more than 65,000 over the
previous record of 2,538,503, set last year when the Cardinals drew
3.2 million fans last year despite 75-86 record.
"We couldn't be more thrilled with the support we received,"
team president Mark Lamping said. "This is yet another prime
example of the tremendous enthusiasm and loyalty that Cardinals
fans have for their baseball."
The Cardinals have sold 21,081 season tickets with two weeks of
sales to go. That's the second-highest total in franchise history
and it's just a few hundred shy of the team record of 21,362 set in
1990.
Last year, the Cardinals sold 20,862 season tickets.
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Pat Hentgen, part of the Cardinals' all-new rotation, allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings. He allowed six hits and struck out
one.
The Cardinals, who outhit the Cubs 22-12, got five straight hits
in the first off loser Jon Lieber, including doubles by Edgar
Renteria, Fernando Tatis and Craig Paquette, and Edmonds' homer.
St. Louis missed a chance for a bigger inning when Lankford was
easily thrown out at the plate trying to score from first on Tatis'
one-out RBI double.
Lieber (1-1) who won on opening day in Tokyo against the New
York Mets, lasted five innings. He allowed five runs, four earned,
on seven hits.
Cardinals right fielder Eric Davis had a rough second inning. He took the wrong angle on Shane Andrews' double off the wall, made a
risky snare of Damon Buford's liner on the short hop for a single, and made a stumbling basket catch of Lieber's warning-track fly
ball to end the inning.
Davis made up for it with a two-run double off Matt Karchner in
the eighth. Paquette added a sacrifice fly in the three-run
inning.
Game notes
Jesse Orosco became the eighth pitcher in major-league history to pitch in four or more decades when he relieved in the
sixth. He also extended his games played record to 1,091. ...
Lankford has 182 homers for fourth on the Cardinals' career list,
one ahead of Jim Bottomley. ... Hentgen is 18-9 for his career in
April. ... The Cubs' Damon Buford is 8-for-17 with seven RBI for his career against Hentgen.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Chicago Cubs Clubhouse
St. Louis Clubhouse
RECAPS
Chi. White Sox 12
Texas 8
Oakland 8
Detroit 2
Baltimore 11
Cleveland 7
Kansas City 4
Toronto 3
Minnesota 10
Tampa Bay 7
Anaheim 12
NY Yankees 6
Seattle 9
Boston 3
Milwaukee 8
Cincinnati 5
San Francisco 11
Florida 9
Montreal 6
Los Angeles 5
Houston 11
Pittsburgh 2
St. Louis 10
Chicago Cubs 4
San Diego 4
NY Mets 0
Atlanta 9
Colorado 6
Arizona 11
Philadelphia 3
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