Cardinals' bats explode on Diamondbacks for second straight day

PHOENIX -- Scott Rolen homered twice and drove in five runs to power the St. Louis Cardinals to a 10-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night.

Edgar Renteria went 4-for-5 with three doubles for the Cardinals, who have outscored Arizona 23-8 and have 30 hits in the first two games of three-game series.

Ray Lankford homered and doubled twice as St. Louis boosted its home run total to 15, most in the majors. The Cardinals have eight homers in two games against the Diamondbacks.

Matt Morris (1-1) threw a five-hitter in his 14th career complete game, bouncing back from his awful outing in the season opener, when he was rocked for seven runs in six innings against Milwaukee.

Rolen and Lankford also homered in Friday night's 13-6 victory. Rolen is 5-for-9 in the series with nine RBIs. Lankford is 5-for-8.

Knuckleballer Steve Sparks (0-1) took the loss in his first start in two seasons. Sparks, a reliever for Detroit and Oakland last season, is 0-12 since his last victory, on Aug. 16, 2002, for the Tigers at Baltimore.

He allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits in six innings.

Steve Finley led off the game with a double, was sacrificed to second by Matt Kata's bunt, then scored on Luis Gonzalez's sacrifice fly to deep right.

The Cardinals tied it when Renteria doubled with two outs in the second, and scored on Reggie Sanders' single. Lankford's two-out homer to left on the first pitch from Sparks put St. Louis up 2-1 in the third.

The Cardinals added two more in the fourth when Jim Edmonds drew a leadoff walk and Rolen hit the first pitch into the left-field stands.

Tony Womack led off the fifth with a bunt single, went to third on Lankford's double, then scored on a passed ball. After Albert Pujols reached on third baseman Shea Hillenbrand's throwing error, Lankford scored on Edmonds' sacrifice fly to make it 6-1.

Arizona got a run in the sixth when Brent Mayne singled, advanced to third on a pair of ground outs, then scored when Kata's slow grounder got past Morris and the second baseman Womack.

St. Louis blew it open with four runs in the seventh, three on Rolen's homer into the Arizona bullpen off reliever Oscar Villarreal.

Pitcher Jason Simontacchi pinch-hit for the Cardinals' Roger Cedeno in the ninth inning. Because St. Louis had no position players available, Simontacchi played left field in the final half-inning.

Notes: Arizona 2B Roberto Alomar was kept out of the starting lineup as a precaution after he was clipped in the left leg by Womack while turning a double play Friday night. X-rays were negative. He pinch-hit for Sparks in the sixth and grounded out. ... St. Louis scored 14 runs and hit seven homers against Casey Daigle and Sparks, the No. 4 and 5 pitchers in the Arizona rotation. ... Before this series, Lankford had not homered since July 2, 2002. He sat out all of last season while recovering from a hamstring injury.