Kile’s in Control, and Cardinals Cruise

Right now, hitters are overmatched against Darryl Kile.

Kile scattered seven hits and struck out 10 in his second consecutive dominant performance as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the visiting Kansas City Royals, 4-2, Wednesday night.

“That was a classic performance,” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said. “He was so sharp.”

It was Kile’s 22nd career complete game and first since April 29, 1999, against St. Louis when he was pitching for Colorado.

Kile (9-3) joined Randy Johnson of Arizona as the only nine-game winners in the NL. He topped his victory total from last season, an 8-13 disaster in Colorado, in only his 13th start.

Seven Royals batters took called third strikes, and Kile struck out four in a row in one stretch. In his last start Friday, Kile ended a string of forgettable interleague outings when he allowed three hits and a run in eight innings in a victory over the Indians.

He’s now 2-6 with a 4.96 ERA in 11 interleague starts.

“That’s just luck,” he said. “It’s a pretty good team over there and they’re playing real well. For us to take two of three is a big lift for us.”

The Cardinals played without Mark McGwire, Ray Lankford and Fernando Vina, all of whom have hamstring injuries.

“If you look at this club, one of the big things we had going for us coming out of spring training was the depth we had,” said Eric Davis, McGwire’s replacement in the cleanup slot the last two games. “We have capable guys, guys who could be playing every day on other teams.”

Kile also got his second hit in 29 at-bats when he singled with two outs and scored on Renteria’s two-out hit in a two-run second. He shattered his bat on the hit.

“It broke about everything in my body,” Kile said. “That’s just luck.”

Edgar Renteria had an RBI double and Davis had a run-scoring single off Miguel Batista (2-5) in the first. Royal right fielder Jermaine Dye missed Placido Polanco’s knee-high fly ball, allowing the ball to roll to the warning track, for a three-base error in the second.

Chicago White Sox 6, Cincinnati 4--Frank Thomas’ first career pinch homer topped Ken Griffey Jr.’s three-run shot and rallied the White Sox to a victory and three-game sweep of the Reds at Cincinnati.

Thomas’ two-run homer in the sixth off Rob Bell (4-4) sent the White Sox to their seventh victory in eight games. Chicago, at 35-23 and 12 games over .500 for the first time since September 1996, finished a 7-2 road trip.

Jim Parque (6-2) pitched five innings and allowed three runs, five hits, walked two and tied a career high with seven walks.

Oakland 10, San Diego 4--Jason Giambi snapped out of a homerless slump with a grand slam and a two-run shot to lead the Athletics to a three-game sweep of the Padres at Oakland.

Giambi went 50 at-bats without a homer until his right-field blast in the fourth inning off Padres starter Matt Clement (5-5). His last home run, on May 21 against Minnesota, also was a grand slam.

It was Giambi’s sixth career grand slam and third this season, tying an A’s franchise record.

Scott Service (1-0), recalled from triple-A Sacramento on May 27, went two scoreless innings for the win.

New York Yankees 7, Montreal 2--Orlando Hernandez allowed four hits in eight innings and the Yankees stole a season-high five bases in a victory over the Expos at Montreal.

Hernandez (6-4) allowed one hit in the first five innings--Vladimir Guerrero’s 18th homer, a two-run drive the first. He struck out five and walked two before Allen Watson finished with a perfect ninth.

Bernie Williams went two for five, including a two-run single in the fifth off Carl Pavano (6-3) that put New York ahead 4-2.

Philadelphia 5, Tampa Bay 4--Ron Gant hit a tiebreaking homer and Pat Burrell had his first career three-hit game to lead the Phillies over the Devil Rays at Philadelphia.

Gant broke a 4-4 tie in the seventh with his 10th homer--an upper-deck shot. It was the 55th homer into the left-field upper deck seats at Veterans Stadium.

Chris Brock (1-4) pitched 1 1/3 innings to win his first game with the Phillies. Mark Guthrie (1-1) took the loss.

Pittsburgh 4, Detroit 3--Luis Sojo and Kevin Young shook off slumps with home runs to lead the Pirates over the Tigers at Pittsburgh.

Todd Ritchie (4-3) won his second straight start, allowing two runs and five hits in eight innings with six strikeouts.

With Pittsburgh trailing 2-1 in the fourth, Sojo broke out of a four-for-31 skid by homering off Hideo Nomo (2-5). Young, in a four-for-30 slump, homered off C.J. Nitkowski in the seventh.

New York Mets 11, Baltimore 3--Edgardo Alfonzo homered, tripled and drove in two runs to lead the Mets over the Orioles at New York.

Scott Erickson (2-3) overcame a shaky first when he allowed solo homers to Alfonzo and Mike Piazza, and Baltimore led 3-2. But New York scored nine runs over the next two innings.

Minnesota 2, Houston 0--Jay Canizaro hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and Joe Mays (3-7) combined with three relievers on a six-hitter as the Twins defeated the Astros at Houston in the first shutout at Enron Field.

It was the lowest-scoring game among the 31 games played in the ballpark, which opened this year. Houston was blanked for the first time in 86 games, the longest active streak of games without a shutout in the major leagues.

Florida 6, Boston 2--Cliff Floyd homered against the Red Sox for the third consecutive game as the Marlins bounced back from consecutive one-run defeats to beat the Red Sox at Miami.

Floyd’s three-run homer off Brian Rose (3-3) in the third inning followed a two-hour, 15-minute rain delay and helped the Florida send Boston to its seventh loss in 11 games.

Cleveland 9, Milwaukee 5--Jamie Brewington won for the first time in five seasons, pitching 2 2/3 hitless innings as the Indians extended their winning streak to five by defeating the Brewers at Milwaukee.

Brewington (1-0), who relieved with the bases loaded in the first, had not won since leading San Francisco over Colorado on Sept. 28, 1995.

Colorado 6, Seattle 1--Tom Goodwin went four for five, had a career-high four stolen bases--including a steal of home--and came up with an RBI single in a clinching three-run eighth inning as the Rockies defeated the Mariners at Seattle.