ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The Milwaukee Brewers have seen enough of Rick Ankiel to know they don't want to see much more.

Ankiel, a 20-year-old rookie, had 10 strikeouts in six innings and Mark McGwire led a six-homer attack with his second long ball in as many days in the St. Louis Cardinals' 11-2 victory Sunday.

Ankiel, the second-youngest player in the majors, allowed three hits and three walks in his sixth career start.

"He's not going to be good, he's good right now," said Jeromy Burnitz, who was 0-for-2 against Ankiel (1-0) with a strikeout, groundout and walk. "I don't see why he can't be Rookie of the Year."

Ankiel's previous career high was nine strikeouts on Sept. 9, 1999, at Atlanta. He struck out Lyle Mouton all three times he faced him, fanned the side in the fourth and was hardly tiring in his final inning -- which matched his career best -- when he struck out two of three hitters. He left after throwing 102 pitches.

"He looks like he's a 20-year-old, but he doesn't act like one or pitch like one," Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan said. "He's got a real feel for pitching."

Ankiel's only trouble came in the third when James Mouton hit an RBI double and in the fifth when Henry Blanco, who had three hits, led off with his first home run.

But he was far from satisfied. Ankiel said he'd have lasted much longer if he hadn't gone so deep in the count to so many hitters.

"I miss big sometimes," Ankiel said. "It's not like I was going strike, strike, strike. Early on, I was missing with everything."

Craig Paquette, Jim Edmonds, Edgar Renteria, Shawon Dunston and J.D. Drew also homered for the Cardinals, who hit 16 as they opened the season with a 5-1 homestand. McGwire said the lineup compares favorably with the Bash Brothers of the late 1980s in Oakland.

"The nice thing about it is a lot of them aren't household names," McGwire said. "If you look at the teams I was on in the later 1980s with the A's, there were a couple of big names and there were not so many household names."

McGwire's three-run homer off Valerio de los Santos (0-1) in the first was the 1,500th hit of his career, more than a third (524) of which are home runs. McGwire, who had 135 homers the past two seasons, hit his first of the season on Saturday.

McGwire's and Paquette's came on consecutive at-bats and Renteria and Dunston connected on consecutive at-bats in the fourth.

"They hit my fastball like they knew it was coming," de los Santos said.

Drew's two-run shot to left field in the eighth was controversial. Replays appeared to show the ball hit the wall several inches to the left of the foul pole. Manager Davey Lopes argued with third-base umpire C.B. Bucknor to no avail.

"I saw the ball and it had nothing but green on it," Lopes said. "That's one indication that it might have been foul."

Eli Marrero added an RBI single in a five-run first for the Cardinals, who have scored 51 runs in six games.

De los Santos lasted 3 2/3 innings, surrendering eight runs and nine hits. He hasn't won a game, either in the majors or minors, since June 19, 1998 when he was at Double-A El Paso.

Game notes
McGwire, who also singled in the sixth, is batting .298 with 90 homers and 195 RBI in 186 career games at Busch Stadium. ... The Cardinals homered in three straight at-bats Thursday, with Fernando Tatis, Drew and Mike Matheny doing the honors. ... The Cardinals etched No. 51 in the grass beyond the center field wall in honor of Willie McGee, who retired after last season. McGee got a standing ovation before his turn to talk. ... Tatis didn't play because of soreness in his left knee. Tatis left Saturday's game in the eighth inning, but manager Tony La Russa said he could play Monday at Houston. ... Reliever Jesse Orosco also was unavailable with tightness in his left forearm, but also said after the game he felt much better. ... Brewers CF Marquis Grissom left in the first with a strained left hip when he ran into the wall trying to rob Paquette of a homer. He is day-to-day. ... Eight batters were hit during the three-game series, five by St. Louis pitchers.