Williams’ Work Helps Cardinals Gain on Reds

The second start to Woody Williams’ season has been nearly perfect.

Williams pitched six scoreless innings, and Jim Edmonds and Albert Pujols each homered to help the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 7-3, Monday night and take three of four from the National League Central Division leaders at St. Louis.

“My mechanics were off, but shoot, are you kidding me?” Williams said. “I’ll take that every time. I’m not a beggar.”

The Cardinals have won nine of 11, shaving the Reds’ lead to three games. They outscored Cincinnati, 23-12, in the series.

“It’s just nice we’re starting to play competitive baseball,” Williams said. “For so long, we were just getting run over.”

Williams (1-0) hasn’t given up an earned run in 12 innings after spending more than five weeks on the disabled list with a strained muscle in his left side. He gave up five hits, struck out five and walked one.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Boston 9, Chicago 0--Derek Lowe, who pitched a no-hitter 23 days ago, gave up two hits in eight innings at Boston.

Lowe (7-1) gave up a leadoff infield single to Kenny Lofton in the first inning and a two-out single to Jeff Liefer in the eighth. He struck out seven, walked two and lowered his leading earned-run average to 1.90.

Shea Hillenbrand hit a three-run homer and Jason Varitek hit a two-run drive.

New York 6, Toronto 3--Robin Ventura homered for the third consecutive game, a tiebreaking drive leading off the bottom of the seventh inning that led the Yankees to their 12th victory in 13 games.

Bernie Williams got the Yankees going with a two-run homer in the first, the fifth game in a row New York has scored in the first inning. Ventura’s 12th home run tied him with Toronto’s Carlos Delgado and Texas’ Alex Rodriguez for the league lead.

The Yankees, who have won five in a row, have homered in 12 consecutive games and have 24 in their last eight, giving them a major league-leading 72.

Detroit 4, Cleveland 3--Wendell Magee’s tiebreaking single in the seventh inning at Detroit gave the Tigers their first four-game winning streak this season. The Indians have lost four of five.