Cards' La Russa records milestone win

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Cards' La Russa records milestone win

 

 

Sports Ticker

 

 

 

6/19/2005 5:57:05 PM

 

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Cardinals completed a perfect weekend in the Sunshine State by giving manager Tony La Russa a milestone victory.

 

John Mabry drove in four runs and Abraham Nunez recorded his second four-hit game of the season as the Cardinals completed a three-game sweep with an 8-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

 

The win moved La Russa, who is a native of Tampa, into sole possession of fourth place on the all-time wins list with 2,158, one ahead of Bucky Harris.

 

"He's up there and I'm still watching baseball," La Russa said of Harris. "Career wins is not a 2005 priority. With our players, we're not talking about anything but the chance to get back to October, and I'm definitely not going to disappoint them."

 

In his 27th season as a major league manager, La Russa has directed 10 playoff teams and has nine seasons of at least 90 wins. He is nearly halfway to that total already.

 

"I've been in baseball since I was five years old," said La Russa, who is 36 wins shy of Sparky Anderson for third place on the all-time list. "So it's not like it's not special, but it's not personal either. The only thing personal about it is my good fortune to be in three good situations where I have managed. That's good fortune."

 

Mabry had a two-run double in the fourth inning to highlight his day and Nunez collected four singles for the Cardinals, who completed their sixth series sweep of the season.

 

After going just 1-for-8 in the first two games of the set, Albert Pujols recorded his seventh three-hit game of the season.

 

The Dominican slugger walked and scored in the first inning, added an RBI base hit in the second, singled and scored in the fourth, and completed his day with a run-scoring hit in the sixth.

 

"This team is capable of a lot. We don't take anything for granted," Pujols said. "We have a job to do and we go out and finish that job everyday."

 

Cardinals leadoff hitter David Eckstein also enjoyed an impressive afternoon, notching two hits and a walk and scoring four times.

 

"Anytime you have great hitters in the middle of the lineup, you want to get things started and let them move you around," Eckstein said. "But the bottom line really is we've been getting great starting pitching and that is so much easier to take care of and go up to the plate relaxed."

 

Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan (6-6) allowed just one run through the first six innings before surrendering four runs in the seventh as the Devil Rays pulled within 7-5.

 

"It's a nice win," Suppan said. "We stayed out of a real big inning and our relievers got the job done."

 

Tampa Bay threatened again in the eighth, but righthander Julian Tavarez struck out Reggie Taylor and Nick Green with two runners on base and lefthander Ray King induced Carl Crawford to ground out to end the inning.

 

"The game today could have gotten away from us, but our relievers made some great pitches when they needed to," La Russa said. "We're doing the things that count when we need them."

 

Jason Isringhausen followed with a perfect ninth to notch his 21st save in 22 chances.

 

"It would have been nice to give Isringhausen a day off," La Russa said. "But we let things get away a little. I am sure you won't see him tomorrow."

 

Tampa Bay's Doug Waechter (3-4) surrendered six runs, seven hits and three walks in just four innings for his first loss in six starts.

 

"He wasn't too sharp. I was expecting a good game from him," Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella said.

 

Aubrey Huff collected three hits and Damon Hollins added two for Tampa Bay, which fell to 3-12 in interleague play after going 15-3 a year ago.

 

"We competed against this team this weekend," Piniella said. "We just fell short every game."