CARDINALS 13, Padres 3

<br>ST. LOUIS (AP) _ Matt Morris became the major leagues' third 18-game winner and the St. Louis Cardinals' scored in double figures for the second straight game, beating the San Diego Padres

Thursday, August 30th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ST. LOUIS (AP) _ Matt Morris became the major leagues' third 18-game winner and the St. Louis Cardinals' scored in double figures for the second straight game, beating the San Diego Padres 13-3 Thursday.

Jim Edmonds was 6-for-10 in the three-game series with two homers and eight RBIs. He had a two-run double in the first and two walks, including one with the bases loaded in the third.

St. Louis, coming off a 16-14 win, scored five runs in each of the first two innings off Junior Herndon (2-3) to take a 10-0 lead.

Morris (18-7) gave up two runs and nine hits in six innings to win his sixth straight start in August and joined Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks as the only 18-game winners in the majors. He struck out seven and walked none to improve to 13-2 at home with a 1.78 ERA, less than half his road ERA of 5.40.

Morris is one shy of John Tudor's team record for home wins, set in 1985.

San Diego's Rickey Henderson homered in the ninth off Andy Benes, giving him 2,231 runs, 14 shy of Ty Cobb's career record.

The Padres' Ryan Klesko was 9-for-12 in the series with three homers, two doubles and seven RBIs, raising his average 12 points to .299. He had two singles in the finale and was robbed of a third hit by shortstop Edgar Renteria's play up the middle in the fifth.

After the second, the Cardinals had scored 26 runs in a nine-inning span. That's six more runs than they had scored in the six games prior to Wednesday.

Fernando Vina got them started with his sixth career leadoff homer, and also doubled and scored three runs. Renteria had a two-run homer in the first and doubled, Craig Paquette hit a three-run homer in the second and Mike Matheny homered in the eighth.

Herndon allowed nine earned runs in his first five career starts over 32 1-3 innings, but this time he allowed 11 runs and nine hits in three innings. His ERA rose from 2.51 to 5.09.

Padres manager Bruce Bochy left Herndon in because the Padres have a doubleheader Friday against Arizona.

Bubba Trammell had an RBI single in the fourth and Wiki Gonzalez had an RBI single in the sixth for the Padres, who have lost two straight after a four-game winning streak in which they outscored the opposition 30-6.

San Diego dropped below .500 at 66-67.

Notes: Mark McGwire sat for the seventh straight game because of a strained right hamstring. ... Tony Gwynn received a standing ovation before and after grounding out as a pinch hitter in the fourth in his final at-bat at Busch Stadium. ... Padres CF Mark Kotsay missed his fifth straight start with a sprained right hand. Kotsay pinch ran Wednesday night and played the last two innings in the field. ... Vina was hit by a pitch for the 19th time this season, and the 47th time over two seasons, in the second.