ST. LOUIS -- As far as Ryan Howard is concerned, there is no place like home. Howard, a St. Louis native, homered and drove in three runs and rookie David Buchanan pitched into the eighth inning Thursday night, sparking the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Howard has hit safely in 22 of 27 regular season games at Busch Stadium. He has 38 RBIs in St. Louis and a .374 batting average. It was Howards first time playing in his hometown since 2011. Injuries caused him to miss chances in 2012 and 2013. "Its always good to be able to come back home and play in front of family and friends," Howard said. "Its a very familiar feeling. Its always good to be back." Howard also has been hot on the road. In his last 15 games away from Philadelphia, he is hitting .350 with three homers and 14 RBIs. "Hes on a good roll for us," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "Hes played big in the last four wins, putting a crooked number of there and swinging a good bat." Buchanan (3-3) made his deepest start yet, pitching 7 2-3 innings. He threw 105 pitches and kept the Cardinals off balance and off the scoreboard until the eighth. Buchanan allowed four hits and a walk while striking out four. Not wearing out the bullpen is important to Buchanan. "Ive been wanting to go deep into the ballgame to help the team out, not always have the bullpen get nervous when I come into games," Buchanan said. "Overall, I had great plays made behind me. It was fun. Great run support. So, it was a good game. It was fun. Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth to pick up 17th save in 19 opportunities. Shelby Miller (7-6) gave up seven hits and three walks in 6 2-3 innings. Miller has thrown six innings or more in his last four starts. Philadelphia touched Miller for two runs in the fourth. Carlos Ruiz doubled and Chase Utley singled to lead off the inning. Howard singled home Ruiz and Utley scored on Domonic Browns sacrifice fly. Howards homer in the sixth -- his 10th career homer at Busch Stadium -- came after Utley led off with a single. Howard went to the opposite field and his ball just flew inside the left field foul pole. It was his 14th this season and 325th of his career. It gave the Phillies a 4-0 lead. "I wasnt sure if the ball was going to stay fair or not," Howard said. "Off the bat, it started to kind of slice. I wasnt sure if it was going to go out. I was a little surprised, but Im not mad at it." Miller was surprised to see it slip over the fence. "It was a little bit in," Miller said of the pitch. "I didnt think he got it all. He hit it in the right spot. The ball was in his numbers. Hes just a good hitter." The Cardinals had runners at first and third with one out in the second inning but Buchanan pitched out the jam and then again in the sixth when Miller doubled to lead off. Four of Millers five hits this season have been doubles. "He rose to the occasion and I think he has that kind of makeup and that kind of character," Sandberg said. "He seems to be showing improvement. It looks like hes growing out there. "For him to go four times through the lineup, that says something about the stuff that he had. Him having to make adjustments the third and fourth time through, that was very good." St. Louis chased Buchanan in the eighth on a two-out single by Matt Carpenter that scored Jhonny Peralta. "I was upset there with the leadoff walk in the eighth," Buchanan said. "I was really wanting to get through that. But that happens." The rookies performance impressed St. Louis manager Mike Matheny. "He had good stuff," Matheny said. "There were not a lot of surprises. He had stuff that we couldnt get on tonight." Third baseman Reid Brignac was hurt on a play at first in the fifth. Matt Adams dived to nab the ball behind the base. Adams flipped it to Miller, who slid into the base for the out. Brignac extended his left foot and jammed it into the base. Brignac lay on the ground before being helped off the field with a noticeable limp. The club said Brignac sprained his ankle and will be re-evaluated Friday. NOTES: The Cardinals said P Michael Wacha will miss Sundays start in the series finale with the Phillies. Wacha has thrown 90 1-3 innings this season. Reliever Carlos Martinez, who started Monday against the New York Mets and threw 59 pitches, will take Wachas place. ... St. Louis P Joe Kelly, who has been on the disabled list with a hamstring injury since the middle of April, threw a bullpen session before the game. No date has been set for a rehab start. ... Cardinals P Tyler Lyons was activated Thursday from the disabled list and optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Lyons went on the DL on May 13 with a shoulder strain. ... Philadelphia SS Jimmy Rollins and 2B Utley have started 1,130 games together as a double-play combination, the most among all active combos in the leagues. ... Rollins extended his hitting streak to 13 games. Ozzie Smith Jersey Large . -- Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer will be out three to six weeks with a stress fracture of the third finger of his right hand. Andrew Knizner . -- Jesse Lussier scored 8:24 into overtime as the Halifax Mooseheads erased a four-goal deficit to beat the host Val-dOr Foreurs 6-5 on Tuesday in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoff action. http://www.custommlbcardinalsjersey.com/...large-561q.html. Red Sox outfielder Jonny Gomes, the bandleader of the beard brigade during Bostons run to the 2013 World Series title, said he will be shaving his off before spring training so that he can file it "in the archive" with his memories of the teams improbable championship. Lou Brock . On Wednesday, Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas hit back. In a passionate defence of himself and the London clubs medical staff, the Portuguese coach rebuked the "incompetent people" who have attacked Tottenham for allowing Lloris to continue playing after being briefly knocked unconscious against Everton on Sunday. Ozzie Smith . When a game is in the balance, however, they still have the personnel and the experience to end up with the two points.WINTERBERG, Germany -- Alex Gough slid just short of her second World Cup medal of the season after finishing fourth at the luge World Cup in Winterberg, Germany on Sunday. The 26-year-old from Calgary, who won the bronze medal at the season-opener in Norway, could not break Germanys domination of the podium and was forced into fourth with a two-run time of one minute 54.382 seconds. "We just werent quick enough on the start today," said Wolfgang Staudinger, the head coach of Canadas luge team. "To win medals it is a tough battle and you have to be on the ball every single day. Alex is in the mix and if we all do our job right I know we can do this." The Germans swept the womens luge podium for the second straight week. Natalie Geisenberger finished on top with a time of 1:53.457. Tatjana Hufner was second at 1:53.897, while Anke Wischnewski grabbed the bronze at 1:54.101. Two other Calgary-based Canadian women enjoyed their best results of the season. Kimberley McRae found her way into the top-10 for the first time this year. McRae clocked a 10th-place time of 1:54.733. Arianne Jones also had a solid outing, placing 16th at 1:55.028. Calggarys Jordan Smith rounded out the Canadian contingent in 23rd with a time of 1:59.dddddddddddd676. The Canadian squad of Gough, Sam Edney and Tristan Walker and Justin Snith were leading the team relay event in the afternoon until they were disqualified after the doubles sled left the start gate too early. Geisenberger leads the standings with 300 points, ahead of Huefner (200) and Wischnewski (186). However, a mistake from Geisenberger at the start of the team relay later Sunday cost Germany the chance of making it a perfect 4-for-4 in gold medals from the weekend. Italys Sandra Gasparini, Dominik Fischnaller and Christian Oberstolz with Patrick Gruber took advantage and won in a track record combined time of 2:25.874. Hansen and American team mates Greg West, Christian Niccum and Jayson Terdiman were second, ahead of Austrias Nina Reithmayer, Daniel Pfister and Peter Penz with Georg Fischler. The Germans had to make do with ninth. On Saturday, Germanys Chris Eissler was the surprise winner of the mens singles race on his World Cup debut, and world champions Tobias Wendl and Tobias Arlt claimed their second doubles victory of the season. ' ' '