Sunday, April 15, 2001

[ MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ]

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii's Chris Truby connected for one of his two
homers for Houston yesterday against St. Louis.

Ankiel not too
wild for Truby

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Associated Press

ST. LOUIS >> Rick Ankiel was neither great nor awful in his second start of the season.

The wild young pitcher walked five and struck out six in five innings as the Cardinals lost 7-4 to the Astros, who got a pair of home runs from Damien Memorial's Chris Truby.

Truby, who walked with the bases loaded in the seventh, drove in three runs for the Astros.

Ankiel (1-1) faced his second straight staff ace after beating Randy Johnson in his season debut last Sunday, and was pitching for the first time at Busch Stadium since he threw five wild pitches in one inning -- the most since 1890 -- in the NL Division series last fall.

Scott Elarton (2-1) overcame early trouble, retiring 17 of 18 batters after allowing back-to-back home runs to Jim Edmonds and Bobby Bonilla with two outs in the first.

Billy Wagner pitched the ninth for his fourth save.