NEU » went on for at least two hours either sid

ST. LOUIS -- Luke Weaver didnt have any big plans to celebrate his first major league win.Jedd Gyorko homered and Weaver pitched six strong innings as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Oakland Athletics 3-1 on Friday night.Its a little late, the 23-year-old Weaver said. Maybe just bed.Gyorkos 423-foot shot in the first extended the Cardinals home run streak to 15 games, the longest active streak in the majors, and made it 2-0 after just two batters.I got a pitch that I was kind of looking for, a change-up, and put a good swing on that, Gyorko said.Weaver (1-1) gave up one run and four hits in a career-high six innings in his home debut for the Cardinals. Five of his seven strikeouts were looking.Luke was great tonight, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. Nice to see him get out of the first without all kinds of traffic and having to be under stress right from the beginning. He had a good clean first and I thought hes just continuing to get better with every start.Weaver lowered his ERA from 5.00 to 3.60.I think I made a couple of mechanical things that made me stay through the pitches better, Weaver said. But just believing that I can be aggressive in the zone and trusting the stuff and I think it paid off tonight.Cardinals center fielder Randal Grichuk made a diving catch on a sinking drive by Stephen Vogt to end the fifth, and Jhonny Peralta made a sprawling stop at third base and threw out Khris Davis to start the sixth.That was a great catch by Grich out there, Weaver said. It minimized some stress on me and saved the game run-wise.Yonder Alonsos solo homer in the second inning was the As only run.Seung Hwan Oh got the last three outs for his 13th save helping the Cardinals get their first interleague win at home in eight tries this season.Ross Detwiler (1-3) gave up three runs and six hits while striking out six in 5 1/3 innings.I think he mixed the pitches a little better, As manager Bob Melvin said. I think his breaking balls were a little better and he was getting ahead more so.The Cardinals capped the scoring in the sixth thanks to alert base running. Brandon Moss read a soft fly perfectly off the bat of Yadier Molina and advanced from first to third as the ball fell beyond the reach of As second baseman Max Muncy in short center field. Molina then intentionally got into a run-down on a shallow fly ball by Peralta, allowing Moss to score.A couple base running plays from guys that arent necessarily known as base stealers, Matheny said. Moss taking the blooper and reading off the bat to challenge to get to third, but Yadi very heads up trying to get that run across realizing that it was worth the out to make sure we get that run.Oaklands Ryon Healy singled in the fourth to extend his hitting streak to 12 games, the longest active stretch in the majors.HOMECOMINGDetwiler went to Holt Senior High in Wentzville, Missouri, 40 miles west of Busch Stadium. He fell to 0-3 with a 4.67 ERA against his hometown team.Its nice to be at home when were away from the field, but its another game once youre here, Detwiler said. Whatever city it doesnt make much of a difference. Its all who youre playing.ROSTER MOVEThe Cardinals recalled RHP Miguel Socolovich and optioned RHP Sam Tuivailala to Triple-A Memphis.TRAINERS ROOMAthletics: INF Billy Butler (concussion) made the road trip and might be cleared to play early next week.Cardinals: RHP Mike Leake (shingles) will not make his scheduled start Saturday, the club announced after the game. He will be replaced by RHP Alex Reyes.UP NEXTAthletics: RHP Zach Neal (2-3, 5.49 ERA) will make his first career appearance against St. Louis. He has walked two in 39 1/3 innings and his .046 walks per nine inning average is the lowest in the majors among pitchers with at least 25 innings.Cardinals: Reyes, a highly-touted prospect, (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will make his first big league start. He has one save and 13 strikeouts in 9 1/3 career innings. Bobby Clarke Jersey . While hell be dialed in to that tournament on a course he loves, you can forgive him if his eyes glance down the calendar just a bit, towards April. 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One of the reasons New Zealand are expected to fare better than South Africa in Indian conditions is that they have three spinners, three varieties of spinners, two of whom have had success in India in the shortest format of the game. On the other hand, though, Indias batsmen are expected to have improved their game on such tracks. They will be expected to do better than last year, when only Ajinkya Rahane managed to score a hundred and average over 35. It wont be easy, though, should the pitches be similar.Anil Kumble, Indias coach, spoke of the challenges faced by not just Indian batsmen, but any modern batsman batting out of his comfort zone, two days before the start of the first Test in Kanpur.It is quite challenging for a modern-day cricketer to keep changing formats, Kumble said. Invariably, when you are playing the shorter format, its in favour of the batsmen. There is hardly anything for the bowler. So, obviously, when they come to play in a Test match, irrespective of the conditions, seam or spin…We have seen modern cricketers, who, if you look at their records in previous years, they were all good players of fast bowling. But they have struggled on seaming tracks because of what the modern batsman encounters. That goes with all teams. But one good thing we have had is we are coming off a Test series, and we have a long Test season at home. So itll only get better. And in terms of our preparations, we have spent a lot of time focusing on preparing to play spinners, and how to respond to playing spinners. And it will only improve, which youll notice as the series goes by.According to Kumble, the problem persists despite knowing what to expect in todays world of analysis. I dont think there is any intrigue left, but the challenge is to adapt to those conditions as quickly as possible, he said. Its equally the same for the home team as well because youre playing so much of cricket. Its all about adaptingg to whatever challenges are forthcoming.dddddddddddd Yes, the home team certainly has the advantage of knowing and playing in these conditions, growing up in these conditions.For a foreign team, since they travel so much - and even for the Indian team now because we have travelled so much - the conditions are no longer alien. Its all about how good and how committed you are, and what kind of quality cricket you can put across on the park.Indias preparations have been thorough. They assembled in Kanpur on September 17, five days before the first Test, and began with their fitness tests. Knowing they could have to face a lot of left-arm pace in the series from Trent Boult and Neil Wagner, they called up Delhis Pradeep Sangwan and Rajasthans Aniket Choudhary to bowl in the nets. They were helped by two pretty good local left-arm quicks. Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav, who is from Kanpur, was at the nets too.The training sessions were long and intense. On Monday, they went on for at least two hours either side of their press conference, virtually spending the whole day at the ground. Kumble said they were not underestimating the opposition.The New Zealand team have done really well, Kumble said. They are not just good at home, but they tour really well, and were aware of that. The fact that they have three spinners, yes, we watch them - at least I watched them - two of the three spinners in the World T20. They played a significant role in New Zealands progress. We respect the opposition and we know that New Zealand is a very potent team, not just in the spin department, but all-round as well. We certainly respect their all-round ability. They have different variations in their spin attack - left-arm spinner, offspinner, legspinner. That is something you dont often see in a foreign team. ' ' '