Kile Avenges Loss To D-Backs

Darryl Kile knew exactly what he needed to do against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had done it just the week before.

One start after a heartbreaking loss to Arizona, Kile got the run support he needed to earn his first win this month as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Diamondbacks 8-4 on Wednesday night.

"If you throw a game where you throw the ball well, you can pick up on some things they are trying to do against you," Kile said. "Hopefully, you'll be able to repeat the things you did well."

Kile had done well last week, when he faced the minimum number of batters through five innings in a 3-2 loss. Kile held the Diamondbacks to 10 hits and one run a homer in that game, earning a no-decision when Arizona rallied in the ninth.

"This team has a lot of character," Kile said about bouncing back to beat the Diamondbacks at home. "Every time it looks like we've got our backs up against the wall, we come out fighting. To win two games against a team like that, it's good for us."

At 12-6, Kile joins the Diamondbacks' Randy Johnson (15-3) and Atlanta's Tom Glavine (12-5) and Greg Maddux (12-4) as the fourth 12-game winner in the National League.

"We shouldn't feel singled out," said Arizona manager Buck Showalter. "It looks like he and St. Louis are a perfect fit."

Before the game, Arizona acquired right-hander Curt Schilling from the Philadelphia Phillies for first baseman-outfielder Travis Lee and pitchers Omar Daal, Vicente Padilla and Nelson Figueroa.

Thomas Howard hit a three-run homer, his sixth, in the fifth to give Kile a comfortable 8-1 lead.

"We've got to go ahead and finish off the sweep," said Howard, who went 2-for-4 with four RBIs. "We have to pick up as many games as we can."

Luis Gonzalez's 19th homer gave Arizona a 1-0 lead in the first.

St. Louis, without Mark McGwire for the foreseeable future, took an early lead, stinging Arizona starter Armando Reynoso for three straight hits to open the game. Fernando Vina, Edgar Renteria and Jim Edmonds all scored to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

The Cardinals added two in the third to go up 5-1, with Renteria scoring on Fernando Tatis' sacrifice fly to center and Edmonds coming home on Howard's RBI single.

Edmonds finished 3-for-4 with two runs, an RBI and a walk.

Kile was ahead 8-1 after seven innings, but pinch-hitter Greg Colbrunn singled leading off the eighth, and the Cardinals missed a double play when Kile misplayed Tony Womack's grounder. Colbrunn scored on Gonzalez's RBI single, and Gonzalez and Womack came home on Matt Williams' double to make it 8-4.

Heathcliff Slocumb got the final three outs.

"I was just hoping to throw strikes and not let them get back in the game because I was wild," Kile said. "Slo came in a did a great job. I can't say enough about how our defense played. They doubled everything up the middle and gobbled everything up and came away with some big hits."

Reynoso (7-7) allowed eight runs and 10 hits in five innings, taking his first loss in more than a month. He had won his last three decisions over a five-start span, including a 4-3 win against the Cardinals last wek.

"It was just a bad all-around night for me," Reynoso said. "I had trouble with location."

It is the first time in two seasons that Diamondbacks starters have lost four straight games.

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