St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 57

SATURDAY, ST. LOUTS PQST-HSRMIH 5 07 mm JUNE 10, 2000 are tame sr stE'iiggie again i nterieaais Jeff Weaver struck out five, walked none and held the Cardinals to four hits and two runs in eight innings. TIGERS 4, CARDS 2 Next up: vs. Detroit 4:05 today KPLR (11) After success against KC, Cards fall to 3-4 vs. the American League this season.

By Rick Hummel Of the Post-Dispatch DETROIT The Cardinals played in their 50th interleague game in their history Friday night After a brief respite against Kansas City, they resumed their losing ways in games with the American League, dropping a 4-2 verdict to the Detroit Tigers at new and spacious Comerica Park. The Cardinals have won just 22 of their interleague games. Manager Tony La Russa and his staff mostly came from Oakland so he said: "We should have an advantage. We know more about the American League than some other National League clubs. But let's wait until interleague play is over for this year before we start nailing this club down." The Cardinals are 3-4 with eight interleague games left.

Garrett Stephenson, who ran off eight straight wins, lost his second straight. As Cleveland's Bartolo Colon outpitched him 4-2 last week in St. Louis, so did Detroit righthander Jeff Weaver on Friday. Weaver walked no one and permitted one hit through six innings and four hits in eight, including a two-run homer by Thomas Howard in the seventh inning. With a scoreless ninth, Todd Jones recorded his major-league-leading 18th save, which is no mean feat considering the Tigers have won just 22 games.

Jones survived an infield error by defensive replacement Shane Halter in the ninth and a 450-foot foul ball by Mark McGwire, before McGwire was called out on strikes. McGwire, who fanned three times, never has homered against the Tigers in 33 at-bats as a member of the Cardinals. But he had 40 homers against the Tigers while he played with Oakland, the most any active hitter has hit against Detroit McGwire hit 23 homers in old Tiger Stadium, the most he has hit in a visiting park. "Sad to see it go. Very sad to see it go," he said.

"This (Comerica Park) is a beautiful ballpark but if a giant ballpark. I think they should bring in the fences a little." La Russa, asked if the strikes to McGwire were all strikes, said, "The umpire (Mike Everett) was very consistent. They were nasty pitches." McGwire merely smiled when he was asked if the called third strikes were actually strikes. "That last pitch (by Jones) was a tough pitch," he said. "You look forward to those appearances.

Sometimes, they're good. Sometimes, they're not good." A THE ASSOCIATED PRESS tuning up to pitch you very, very tough, it's not easy. I don't know why people write about hitting home runs. The more you write about it, the tougher I got pitched. "So stop talking about it" said McGwire, laughing.

The game, which drew a sellout crowd of 39,081, ended on Howard's double-play ball to shortstop Deivi Cruz, who bobbled the ball before stepping on second and firing to first The Tigers jumped ahead 1-0 in the second on singles by Dean Palmer, Ausmus and Cruz. Cruz's hit came with two out and two strikes. "(Stephenson) made a mistake to Cruz," La Russa said. Stephenson took it a step further. "I came in and said, 'That was the dumbest pitch you could have ever thrown anybody in a million I'm going to try to sneak an 88 mile an hour fastball past a big-league With two out in the third, Juan Gonzalez singled to left and Bobby Higginson doubled off the right-field fence.

Gonzalez scored all the way from first when second baseman Fernando Vina's relay throw short-hopped catcher Eli Marrero, who didn't handle the ball cleanly. "That was a hell of a send by the third-base coach (Doug Mansolino)," La Russa said. Detroit made it 3-0 in the fourth. Robert Fick tripled when right fielder Larry Sutton, making his first start there for the Cardinals, couldn't run down Fick's long drive to the base of the right-center-field scoreboard. Sutton dived futility for the ball.

"He went after it right He just couldn't catch up to it," La Russa said. Fick scored on Ausmus' grounder to shortstop Edgar Renteria. Palmer slugged his 12th homer in the Detroit sixth. For a fleeting second, it was Jones who thought the appearance wouldn't be good. "Every home run hit off me has a very distinct sound," Jones said.

"That one had that sound. It went, Then it went foul. I knew I'd gotten away with one. That was the game plan. Hang a curve and let him hit it 600 feet and then to get him out "I don't know what I'm going to do with him (today).

I threw him everything I had tonight." Tigers catcher Brad Ausmus, asked what he thought when Jones' hanger came toward the plate, said, "I called time out but they didn't give it to me." McGwire said there was no ready explanation for his having hit 40 homers against Detroit but none as a Cardinal. i. "We don't play them that much," he said. "When you only play a team three times and you know they're i Ml li 1 tr I i-S.