ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Rick Ankiel was a better hitter than pitcher, and that's saying something.

The 20-year-old rookie went 3-for-3 with a home run, and pitched five scoreless innings despite seven walks in the St. Louis Cardinals' 14-1 victory over San Diego on Thursday night.

	Rick Ankiel wields a mean bat, too. He's 5-for-9 with a homer, triple and two RBI.

"I get paid to pitch, and that was terrible," Ankiel said. "I leave those guys out there for 30 minutes inning after inning, and for them to come in and score runs like that, it's amazing."

On the other hand, none of those walks hurt him. Ankiel (2-1) said a slight adjustment with his shoulder should correct the wildness that has led to 17 walks in 18 innings.

"That happens sometimes," manager Tony La Russa said of Ankiel, who also has 17 strikeouts. "He's still learning to harness that ability."

Ankiel is 5-for-9 with a triple and two RBI.

"None of those hits are accidents," La Russa said. "He's almost as good a hitter as he is a pitcher."

Not many Padres made contact against Ankiel, the second-youngest pitcher in the majors, who allowed only two hits and had four strikeouts. He walked the bases loaded in the first and got out of it by striking out Ed Sprague and getting Bret Boone to foul out. He walked two more in the fifth and again escaped a bases-loaded jam by getting Sprague to ground out.

Eli Marrero capped a six-run first with his first career grand slam. He and Ankiel hit consecutive homers off reliever Vicente Palacios in the fifth as the Cardinals continued to pace the majors in run production.

"It's unbelievable," Marrero said.

This was only the fourth start for Marrero, who lost his starting job to Mike Matheny after batting .192 last year and experimenting throughout with batting stances.

"A couple? It's more like a couple dozen," Marrero said. "Last year, every at-bat I think I had a different stance."

The Cardinals are averaging eight runs after topping their previous high of 13 runs. They have homered in 12 straight games and lead the majors with 39 homers.

Fernando Tatis had four RBI, two of them coming on bases-loaded walks, and Ray Lankford broke out of a 1-for-26 slump with two hits and three RBI.

Mark McGwire returned to the lineup after missing seven games with back problems and was 0-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored, leaving for a pinch-runner in the fifth.

The first inning lasted 41 minutes as Ankiel threw 36 pitches and Padres starter Brian Boehringer (0-3) threw 44, including four consecutive walks. Lankford and Tatis both walked with the bases loaded and Marrero, making only his fourth start, hit his grand slam on a 1-0 pitch.

"He just didn't have command of his stuff," manager Bruce Bochy said. "He never really got in the groove."

The Cardinals have hit 30 homers during their 12-game streak, which is five games shy of the team record set in 1998.

Padres cleanup hitter Phil Nevin and manager Bruce Bochy were ejected in the middle of the third disputing a called third strike. On his way off the field, Nevin threw his glove and hat in the air and made a gesture in Young's direction with his arm, then took off his jersey and dropped it in foul territory.

Young was the first base umpire on Eric Davis' controversial two-run bases-loaded infield hit on Wednesday night, ruling him safe when replays indicated Davis was out by a half-step.

"I've never been tossed from behind third base when I'm yelling at myself with my back to the infield," Nevin said. "I thought he had a pretty bad zone today."

Game notes
The Cardinals have had back-to-back homers seven times already. They did it only four times last season. The NL record is 15 by the 1997 Colorado Rockies. ... La Russa, who twice insisted that Davis was safe Wednesday, admitted Thursday he hadn't seen the replay until later and had been taking the word of a Cardinals player or coach. ... Palacios made his first major league appearance since 1995 when he pitched for the Cardinals. He allowed six runs, four of them earned, in 1 2/3 innings. He was called up Thursday when the Padres demoted C Ben Davis, who was 1-for-16. ... The Cardinals are 10-2 the last two seasons against the Padres, although the first two victories in this series were by one run. ... The Padres' run came on a groundout by Chris Gomez in the sixth. ... Eric Owens was 0-for-3 as his 13-game hitting streak ended.