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Thompson gives Cardinals lift in show-me state rivalry

Jun 20, 2007 - 4:26 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Brad Thompson met the challenge of being moved up in the St. Louis Cardinals' rotation.

Thompson pitched seven strong innings on short rest and Chris Duncan drove in three runs to lift the Cardinals to a 5-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the second of a three-game interleague series on Tuesday.

After pitching two innings of relief in a 15-6 win over the Oakland Athletics on Friday, Thompson (5-2) yielded just one run and seven hits with three strikeouts.

"I felt like I had command of the sinker down in the zone," Thompson said. "It was a big confidence thing for me knowing I had the sinker to go to. It's as much command of it as I've had."

Thompson was moved up in the rotation after St. Louis sent originally scheduled starter Kip Wells to the bullpen.

"I was kidding (Thompson)," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "He threw less than 40 pitches (Friday), two days rest, 80 (tonight), we'll start him on Saturday."

The 25-year-old Thompson held the Royals scoreless through six innings until pinch hitter Joey Gathright hit an RBI single with two outs in the seventh.

"You can't ask for anything better than what (Thompson) did," Duncan said. "He went out there and threw a bunch of innings and did a great job. It was what we needed."

It was a big turnaround from Thompson's previous start when he allowed a career-high eight runs in just 4 1/3 innings in an 8-1 loss to the Royals last Tuesday.

"You think about it," Thompson said. "You don't want the same results to happen. You take it personal."

Duncan gave the Cardinals an early lead with a two-run homer off Royals starter Scott Elarton (2-3) in the second inning. Duncan is 4-for-7 with two homers and seven RBI in two games over six days against Elarton.

"(Duncan) sees the ball real well (against me)," Elarton said. "It doesn't really seem to matter what I'm throwing."

"I know I've had success against him," Duncan said. "It just seems that I see the ball pretty good off him. I was confident going into the game."

Scott Spiezio and Duncan both had RBI singles in the third frame as St. Louis opened up a 5-0 advantage.

Duncan has homered in three of his last five games with 12 RBI over that span.

"I think the best for Chris (Duncan) is ahead this season," La Russa said. "I think we have a real impact clutch guy that's going to be here with us until the end."

Elarton was chased after just 2 2/3 innings, surrendering five runs and five hits. The righthander has given up 11 runs over 4 2/3 innings in his last two starts, which were both against the Cardinals.

"Tonight the offspeed pitches hurt me," Elarton said. "All of them were up. There's really not much to say about it. It was just bad."

"It looked like his angle was better tonight," added Royals manager Buddy Bell. "Stuff was just not getting out of his hand like it can. His command is not where it needs to be."

Cardinals leadoff hitter So Taguchi extended his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games, but Juan Encarnacion was held hitless, ending his streak at 18.