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Lohse stymies Pirates, Ankiel homers in Cardinals win

Jul 12, 2008 - 3:09 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Kyle Lohse keeps on winning, even when he doesn't have his best stuff.

Lohse notched his eighth consecutive victory by throwing seven scoreless innings and Rick Ankiel homered as the St. Louis Cardinals posted a 6-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.

Lohse (11-2), who had just nine wins last season, allowed six hits and a walk. He had three strikeouts and lowered his ERA to 3.39. It has been a stunning turnaround for the righthander, who has not lost since May 8, yet was left off the National League All-Star team. .

"This was the (victory during the streak) where , I don't know if I'm proudest, but I'm happiest about the way I went out and pitched because I didn't really feel like I had the best stuff," said Lohse, who worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth.

"But when you bear down and make pitches like I was able to, it feels really good to get the win."

Lohse got all the support he needed thanks to some clutch hitting. The Cardinals scored four runs in the third - all with two outs. After Albert Pujols and Troy Glaus singled, Yadier Molina doubled down the left field line for a 2-0 lead. Ankiel followed with his team-high 20th home run to right-center to make it 4-0.

"That's huge, to get runs for the starter and let him get a chance to relax and just pitch," Ankiel said. "He's been so good for us. Eight in a row now? It was another solid start for him."

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was especially pleased with the timely hitting.

"That was all with two outs nobody on, so that was really impressive," La Russa said. "Two-out RBIs, if you get them, a lot of times they're the difference."

Ankiel was 3-for-3 with a walk and added an RBI single in the seventh. The pitcher-turned-center fielder has hit safely in 15 of his past 17 games, belting eight home runs with 16 RBI in that span. Ryan Ludwick hit his 19th home run, a solo shot to left off Pirates starter Zach Duke (4-6) with two outs in the fourth.

Duke was charged with five runs on 10 hits in six innings. The lefthander has been tagged for 10 runs in his last two starts after having allowed a total of 14 earned runs in his previous seven outings.

"It kind of snowballed from (the third)," Duke said. "I hung a breaking ball to Ankiel and he did what he's supposed to do with a hanging breaking ball. It's very frustrating."

Ryan Doumit and Jose Bautista each had a pair of hits and a walk for Pittsburgh, which had won three of its previous four but couldn't solve Lohse.

"We had a couple of chances to get to him," Pirates manager John Russell said. "He was pretty efficient. He changed speeds and had a good slider and used it efficiently."