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Cardinals get to Rogers in win over Tigers

Jun 25, 2008 - 4:02 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Cardinals roughed up Kenny Rogers to open their three-game interleague series against the Detroit Tigers with an 8-4 victory on Tuesday night at Comerica Park.

Rogers (5-5) had yielded four earned runs and 25 hits in 36 innings over his last five starts entering Tuesday. He did not have the same success against the Cardinals, yielding five runs - all earned - and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings.

"I wasn't great. I wasn't like I felt like I had been, especially the sinkers, they weren't very good," Rogers said. "It doesn't matter the flow of the game or whatever, I'm supposed to make some good pitches, eliminate any kind of damage we're having. The first five, 2-2, I'll take that pretty much every time.

"I'm not looking at it as a bad day. The results weren't good but those are one of the days when I don't have great stuff but I try to manage through it. I think I was doing that through the first five even though it wasn't pretty."

Brian Barton hit a home run to left field in the fifth off Rogers to forge a 2-2 tie. St. Louis pulled away by scoring three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings.

Braden Looper (9-5) picked up the win for the Cardinals, allowing four runs and seven hits in six innings with a walk and three strikeouts.

"He gave us six solid innings against a very tough team," Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa said. "He didn't do anything cute. He got the big outs when he needed to. He really deserved the win."

"I felt really good," Looper said. "I threw good pitches all night.I threw a lot of strikes. Even the pitches for the homers were also strikes. I was just cruising along. I should have gone seven or eight, but I couldn't get loose after the sixth."

Brendan Ryan went 3-for-4 with two RBI, including a two-run double in the seventh for St. Louis.

After being activated from the 15-day disabled list earlier on Tuesday, outfielder Gary Sheffield hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning for Detroit.

Sheffield had been on the DL since May 28 with a strained oblique. The 39-year-old, who is now 16 homers away from 500 for his career, entered Tuesday hitting just .213 with three home runs and 12 RBI in 39 games this season.

"I think he (Sheffield) did fine. He jumped on the one, just missed another one," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He was fine. We're going to continue to run him out there, see how it goes. It was a Gary home run, a long line drive. Hopefully we can get him on a roll."

"I feel great. I think going down there did me a lot of good, gave me the rest that I needed. My shoulder feels great so I'm encouraged by it," Sheffield said. "Just getting back in the swing of things, slowing the game down. Tonight it seemed slower to me. Hopefully good things will come."

While Sheffield's home run was a welcomed sight for the Tigers, it did nothing but change the final score as the Cardinals wrapped up the game with three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings.

Adam Kennedy gave St. Louis a 3-2 lead with an RBI single in the sixth and Skip Schumaker added a two-run single later in the frame to make it 5-2. Nick Stavinoha added an RBI in the seventh before Ryan came through with a two-run double to extend the lead to 8-2.

"I got the ball up in the zone and was able to get a good piece of it," Stavinoha said. "The more important thing than the hit is that I was able to help the team win."