Monday, May 28, 2001
Cards end winning road trip
By Joe Kay
AP Sports Writer
J.D. Drew got a stiff neck sleeping on overstuffed hotel pillows. The rest of the St. Louis Cardinals got soaked in the never-ending Cincinnati rain. Tossing their soaked uniforms into mesh equipment bags, all they could think about was home.
Drew had three hits and Darryl Kile overcame a 52-minute rain delay as the Cardinals completed their longest road trip of the season by beating the Reds 2-0 on Sunday.
“I'm excited,” said Kile (7-3), who gave up seven hits in 6 1-3 soggy innings. “I can't wait to get home to St. Louis again.”
The Cardinals have been on the road for the last 13 days, winding their way from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia to Milwaukee to Cincinnati. They left St. Louis buoyed by a 7-0 homestand, then went 7-5 on their first winning road trip of the season.
Manager Tony La Russa worried before the final game that his players might have packed away their concentration along with the two weeks of laundry. Drew, Kile and the Cardinals' bullpen left no reason to worry.
“I was glad they were ready to play and focused, and they played it to the hilt,” La Russa said. “I didn't want them to mentally end their road trip this morning. It's human nature.”
Drew, who missed the first game of the series with a stiff neck, doubled home a run in the first inning off Brian Reith (0-2). Drew also singled during a ninth-inning rally, his third hit despite a bad neck.
“Just traveling around, getting bad beds and bad pillows, I got one of those cricks in my neck that I just can't work out,” Drew said. “It'll be good to get in my own bed for a change.”
Kile pitched out of scoring threats in each of the first four innings. With a heavy rain falling in the sixth, Sean Casey doubled off the wall in center with one out, and Kile went to a 2-1 count on Ruben Rivera before the umpires called for the tarp.
Kile just stayed in the dugout and watched it rain.
“I sat right in the same spot in the dugout and waited for the game to start,” he said. “The rain delay takes a lot out of you. I was fortunate to be able to come back and finish that inning off.”
He overcame the 52-minute delay by retiring Rivera and Brandon Larson on pop-ups in only two minutes. The bullpen allowed only one hit over the final 2 2-3 innings.
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Cards end winning road trip 
