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Tuesday, Sep. 5 8:10pm ET
No-hitter turns into slugfest

RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Ray Lankford wants to put a miserable year behind him and recapture his stroke before the playoffs.

Lankford homered twice as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Montreal Expos 7-6 Tuesday night for their sixth straight victory.


	Ray Lankford likes hitting at Busch Stadium. He hit two homers there Tuesday night against the Expos, and 15 of his 22 homers this season have come at home.

"It's at the point now that it's not what I've done, it's what I do from here on out," Lankford said. "If I can have a good September and October, that takes care of a lot of things."

Lankford, who began the year hitting third, is batting .251 with 22 homers, 58 RBIs and 131 strikeouts in 342 at-bats. He's also been a bit of a liability in left field.

"It's not how you start, it's how you finish," Lankford said.

Rookie Britt Reames didn't allow a hit for 5 2/3 innings as the Cardinals matched their season-high winning streak and pulled 10 games ahead of Cincinnati in the NL Central, also matching a season best. But they had to hold on after taking a 6-0 lead in the third.

The Expos' first hit off Reames (1-1) was a two-run double by Vladimir Guerrero that came after two walks earlier in the inning. After walking his first batter, Gene Stechschulte gave up a three-run homer to Geoff Blum that cut the gap to a run.

"Everybody that watched on our club enjoyed watching him enjoy it," manager Tony La Russa said. "It got more than a little scary, it got a lot scary, but we hung in there and got some big outs."

Lankford hit a two-run homer in the third off Julio Santana (0-5) to give the Cardinals a 6-0 lead. Lankford he homered again leading off the sixth against Anthony Telford for a 7-5 lead, and Fernando Seguignol homered in the seventh for the Expos.

Reames gave up three runs, one hit and four walks in 5 2/3 innings. He said he wasn't thinking about a no-hitter in the sixth.

"Not at all," Reames said. "I got a little wild and walked two guys. I nibbled a little too much."

Mike Timlin pitched the final two innings for his 12th save as the Expos, who are 18-42 since July 1.

"Oh man, that's the way things have been going," Blum said. "We get enough runs, but we just peter out in the last couple of innings."

The Cardinals are 5-0 with two games to go on the homestand, have won 16 of 20 overall and are a season-best 22 games above .500.

Santana walked three batters in the Cardinals' four-run first, and all of them scored. Will Clark had a two-run single, making him 8-for-8 against Santana with five RBIs, and Edgar Renteria had an RBI single. Clark also walked and scored on Lankford's home run against Santana in the third.

Santana lasted three innings and gave up six runs -- five earned -- and four hits.

He said home plate umpire Mark Carlson wasn't giving him a fair shake.

"He was squeezing me the whole time," Santana said. "If I would have been Pedro (Martinez) or Greg Maddux or Randy Johnson, I would get those calls."

Game notes
The Cardinals also led second-place Cincinnati by 10 games on July 5. ... Lankford has 15 career multihomer games, and three this season. Fifteen of his homers and 40 of his 58 RBIs have come at home. ... Cardinals 2B Fernando Vina sat out for the second straight game with bruised ribs. He missed three games last week with the same injury. ... Guerrero has 101 RBIs. Last year he got his 100th on Aug. 28, en route to a team record 131. ... St. Louis C Eli Marrero, out about two months with a broken thumb, made his first start since July 1 and was 0-for-3. He's 4-for-40 for his career against Montreal pitching. ... The Cardinals have gone eight games without an error. ... After the game, the Expos recalled 1B-OF Talmadge Nunnari from Triple-A Ottawa.ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Ray Lankford wants to put a miserable year behind him and recapture his stroke before the playoffs.