Twins' rookie wins

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Rick Ankiel's brief career has gotten far more attention than Mark Redman's. Some of Redman's teammates think their left-hander is also one of the majors' top young pitchers.

Redman won the matchup of rookie left-handers Sunday, leading the Minnesota Twins over Ankiel and the St. Louis Cardinals 5-2.

''When Redman throws strikes, he's pretty tough to hit. Sitting out there in center field, it reminded me of David Wells with his curveball,'' said Minnesota's Denny Hocking, who was 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.

Redman (7-4) struck out seven in seven innings and allowed two runs on five hits. He didn't allow a hit until Eric Davis opened the fifth with a bloop single to center.

St. Louis faced Redman for the first time and not all the Cardinals were prepared.

''Who was that pitcher?'' St. Louis outfielder Shawon Dunston asked. ''Is he a rookie? Somebody taught him how to pitch in and out.''

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa wasn't surprised that Redman turned in such a strong outing.

''He pitched better than Ankiel,'' La Russa said. ''He's the winning pitcher and he deserved it. He pitched effectively.''

Redman used a sinker, curveball and fastball to keep the ball in the strike zone. Of his 116 pitches, 73 were strikes.

Eddie Guardado got two outs for his fifth save in as many chances.

Ankiel (6-5) gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings, yielding to Matt Morris to start the seventh.

''Both guys I thought threw the ball pretty darn good,'' said Twins coach Ron Gardenhire, filling in for manager Tom Kelly, who is in Florida with his ailing father. ''We had a tough time with Ankiel.''

Ankiel, who was pitching on nine days rest and hasn't won in four starts, said the long layoff wasn't a factor.

''You don't think about it,'' Ankiel said. ''I just didn't make pitches when I needed to.''

Redman won his second straight start. He stumbled after starting the season 4-0.

''You have to go out there and be aggressive, like I had been for my first couple of starts this year,'' Redman said.

Jay Canizaro and Midre Cummings each had two hits and an RBI for the Twins, who won for just the third time in 12 games.

''Ankiel got the ball up just a little bit and we were able to take advantage of it,'' Hocking said.

Minnesota took a 3-0 lead in the fourth, starting the inning with consecutive singles by Hocking, Matt Lawton and David Ortiz.

Ortiz's hit scored Hocking, and the Twins increased their lead on Canizaro's RBI single and Jason Maxwell's sacrifice fly.

St. Louis, which leads the majors with 157 homers, failed to hit a home run for just the 17th time in 91 games.

''Beating a top team always feels good because their payroll is like $60 million and ours is like $16 (million),'' Guardado said.

Edgar Renteria drove in two runs with a double in the eighth. Travis Miller came on to strike out Jim Edmonds, who struck out for the third time in the game.

''Jim's got to put that ball in play,'' La Russa said. ''That's a bad strikeout.''

Notes: Twins catchers have thrown out 22 percent (11-for-49) of runners trying to steal. ... Canizaro made the third out in the fourth inning when he walked off second base after he thought he was tagged out by Placido Polanco. He was called safe when he returned to second after Maxwell's sacrifice fly. The play was later ruled a 7-2-4 double play. ... Minnesota's Cristian Guzman hit his major league-leading 13th triple in the fifth. He is three shy of tying Rod Carew's team record set in 1977. ... The game drew 30,116 to the Metrodome, the third-largest crowd of the year. Combined with the 36,688 on Saturday, it was the first time this season the Twins have had home crowds of 30,000 or more in back-to-back games.