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  Saturday, Aug. 26 7:10pm ET
Clark hits two homers off Millwood
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

ATLANTA (AP) -- Will Clark doesn't know why he hits so well against the Atlanta Braves. He's just glad he does.

Clark homered twice and Garrett Stephenson scattered seven hits over 6 2/3 innings as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves 6-3 Saturday night.

Will Clark
Will Clark hits his second home run off Kevin Millwood. Clark also doubled and finished 3-for-4 with three RBI.

"I think when you face guys who are some of the better guys in the league, you should get motivated," Clark said. "You know when you face an Atlanta staff, you have to execute. If you don't execute, you're going to go home not only with a lot of 0-fers but losses."

Clark, acquired in a July 31 trade with Baltimore, has seven homers with St. Louis -- five coming against the Braves -- and 16 this season.

He led off the second with a homer to make it 1-0, added an RBI double in the third and another solo shot in the fifth as St. Louis broke out to a 5-0 lead. Clark, who has 10 hits in his last 16 at-bats, has 13 multihomer games in his career.

Stephenson (15-7) did not allow a run until Rafael Furcal's sacrifice fly in the seventh. He was replaced by Matt Morris with two outs in the seventh and the bases loaded.

"When he tried to make a pitch most of the game, the pitch was there," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "When he tried to make a pitch that inning, most of the times it wasn't there. He was missing his location."

Morris needed just two pitches to get Chipper Jones to fly out to end the threat.

St. Louis, which has won eight of 11 games, will try Sunday to win its first season series against the Braves since 1994. Each team has three wins apiece this year.

Stephenson walked three and struck out two to move past teammate Darryl Kile for third-most victories in the NL. Stephenson, who has won four straight decisions, entered the season with 14 wins in four seasons.

Stephenson pitched a five-hitter in a 5-0 victory over the Braves on Aug. 5 in St. Louis.

"My whole goal this year was, first of all, to throw 200 innings," he said. "Second of all, when I step out there every five days I want my team to know we have a chance to win, to know that I'm going to try and work as quick as I can so they can play good defense behind me."

One out after Clark's first homer off Kevin Millwood (8-9), Ray Lankford made it 2-0 with his 20th homer. Edgar Renteria followed with a single and scored on Mike Matheny's RBI double for a 3-0 St. Louis lead.

Millwood, who lost for the first time since July 9 at Boston, gave up seven hits and five runs in six innings. He was 3-0 with five no-decisions in eight starts since the Red Sox beat him 7-2.

The Braves had won Millwood's six previous starts.

"It seems like every team has somebody that gives you trouble, and (Clark) has given me a lot of trouble," Millwood said. "He hit two totally different pitches out of the park. I thought I made a pretty good pitch to Lankford. The two to Clark were up."

Placido Polanco made it 6-1 in the eighth with an RBI double against Stan Belinda.

Atlanta scored twice in the ninth on an RBI groundout by Furcal and a run-scoring double by Andruw Jones. Dave Veres ended the game by snaring Chipper Jones' live drive.

"It would have been interesting if Chipper's ball had gone in there," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "We were making a game of it there."

Game notes
In getting his first multihomer game since Aug. 28, 1998, Clark improved his career average in five games at Turner Field to .500 (11-for-22). ... Millwood has not been over .500 since May 23, when he lost to Milwaukee and dropped to 4-3. ... Fernando Vina went 0-for-4, ending a career-best 17-game hitting streak. ... Fernando Tatis struck out four times, three against Millwood.
 


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