St. Louis will get rare look at Yankees

The Cardinals open a three-game series tonight at home against the struggling Bronx Bombers .

ST. LOUIS -- After taking two of three from the team that swept them in the World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals move on to an even higher-profile series.

Next up, the slumping New York Yankees for a three-game weekend series in their first-ever regular-season visit to town.

"I don't know how old Busch Stadium is, and they've never been here before," pitcher Matt Morris said. "It will be nice to go up against the best franchise in baseball, apparently, and see how we match up."

The key word is apparently. The Yankees have lost seven of nine in a season-long 12-game trip, and the team with the largest payroll in the major leagues by far was in fourth place in the NL East with a 29-30 record.

It's not the scenario manager Joe Torre envisioned for his first games in St. Louis since the Cardinals fired him as manager in 1995. Torre was let go in the final year of ownership under Anheuser-Busch, which had lost interest in fielding a top-quality team, before moving on to New York where he's produced four world championships.

Tony La Russa was hired in 1996 by the Cardinals' new ownership group, and has led the team to five postseason berths in nine seasons. After leading the major leagues with 105 victories last year, the Cardinals enter the Yankees series with an NL-best 38-21 record.

La Russa knows going from the Red Sox to the Yankees is the highlight of the final year at 40-year-old Busch.

"There's an extra edge because it's so rare," La Russa said. "The Cardinals have played the Red Sox in the World Series several times and now they play the Yankees.

"I've been in Yankee Stadium and Fenway and I get more of a kick out of playing them here and letting our fans see them."

The Cardinals are riding a run of seven straight home sellouts that will grow to 10 by Sunday. Most of the crowd stuck around for Boston's 4-0 victory on Wednesday despite a rain delay of nearly three hours before the start of the game.

Jason Marquis (7-3) will start for the Cardinals tonight against Chien-Ming Wan (3-1), who's subbing in the Yankees' rotation while Kevin Brown misses a turn with a sore left shoulder. He's looking forward to more of the same atmosphere the Cardinals had for their World Series rematch series.

"We've had some good crowds and it hasn't been too rowdy," Marquis said. "You heard some yells for the Red Sox, but anytime you have teams like the Red Sox, Cardinals and Yankees, you know they have fans that come from all over the country to watch them play."

Marquis is from New York and grew up rooting for the Yankees and idolizing Don Mattingly, now the Yankees' batting coach. Since he became a major leaguer, his rooting interest has faded away.

"It's whatever now, really not much to it," Marquis said. "In the minor leagues you watch them a little bit and then you're on your schedule and you don't think about it.

"Unless I'm wearing pinstripes it's obviously not as big a day as it used to be."

The Yankees haven't played in St. Louis since the 1964 World Series. Alex Rodriguez became the youngest player to reach 400 home runs with a pair in a 12-3 rout over the Brewers on Wednesday, a rare highlight recently for a team that has lost nine of 11 entering the series.

The Cardinals played an interleague series in New York in 2003 and were the victims in Roger Clemens' 300th career victory.

Morris also lost a game in that interleague series, getting only two outs and then getting pulled after a rain delay in a start he entered with a sore shoulder. He enters his Sunday start against Carl Pavano (4-5) as the only 7-0 pitcher in the major leagues.

"I can't wait to compete against them here," Morris said. "I had the chance at Yankee Stadium and wasn't feeling well, had a rain delay and things just didn't go the way I wanted it to.

"This time, I'm going in healthy."

The marquee pitching matchup of the series is on Saturday when Mark Mulder (7-3) opposes Randy Johnson (5-5).