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ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Lance Lynn pitched seven solid innings and the St. Louis Cardinals got home runs from Yadier Molina and Carlos Beltran in a 7-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night.

Lynn allowed one run and five hits, struck out six and walked one. He improved to 8-1 for the second consecutive season while becoming the third National League pitcher to reach eight wins, trailing Patrick Corbin's league-leading nine for Arizona.

Molina hit a leadoff drive in the fifth on the same day he received a one-game suspension from Major League Baseball for making contact with umpire Mike Everitt during an argument on Sunday. The All-Star catcher appealed the decision.

Molina's fourth homer lifted St. Louis to a 5-0 lead. He finished with two hits and two RBIs.

Arizona starter Trevor Cahill was charged with five runs and nine hits in five innings. He walked three and had no strikeouts for the first time this season.

Cahill (3-6) had allowed four earned runs or less in 29 consecutive starts.

The Diamondbacks got their only run in the sixth. Gerardo Parra had a leadoff double, moved up on Martin Prado's flyout and came home on Paul Goldschmidt's groundout.

Beltran and Matt Carpenter had three hits apiece for the Cardinals. Beltran's 13th homer drove in Carpenter and made it 7-1 in the sixth. He also drove in Carpenter in the fourth with a single.

The Cardinals went 5 for 8 with runners in scoring position against the usually stout Cahill. Entering the game, batters had just a .111 average against him in that situation.

David Freese singled in Molina in the third, making it 3-0 and extending his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games. Molina singled in Matt Holliday, before taking second on the throw home and third on a wild pitch.

NOTES: Carpenter extended his hitting streak to 12 with a single in the first, tying his career high set from September 12-24, 2012. ... Tyler Skaggs makes his second start of the year Tuesday for the Diamondbacks in place of Brandon McCarthy, who is on the 15-day disabled list with shoulder issues. Arizona has not yet made a roster move to accommodate Skaggs' return from Triple-A Reno. ... St. Louis' Joe Kelly will make his first start of 2013 on Wednesday. He made 16 starts in 2012 with a 4-6 record, but has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen this year with 16 appearances. ... Corbin was named the National League's pitcher of the month for May during which he went 5-0 with a 1.53 ERA.

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LONDON (AP) -- For decades, health officials have battled malaria with insecticides, bed nets and drugs. Now, scientists say there might be a potent new tool to fight the deadly mosquito-borne disease: the stench of human feet.

In a laboratory study, researchers found that mosquitoes infected with the tropical disease were more attracted to human odors from a dirty sock than those that didn't carry malaria. Insects carrying malaria parasites were three times more likely to be drawn to the stinky stockings.

The new finding may help create traps that target only malaria-carrying mosquitoes, researchers say.

"Smelly feet have a use after all," said Dr. James Logan, who headed the research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "Every time we identify a new part of how the malaria mosquito interacts with us, we're one step closer to controlling it better."

The sock findings were published last month in the journal, PLoS One.

Malaria is estimated to kill more than 600,000 people every year, mostly children in Africa.

Experts have long known that mosquitoes are drawn to human odors, but it was unclear if being infected with malaria made them even more attracted to us. Infected mosquitoes are believed to make up about 1 percent of the mosquito population.

Using traps that only target malaria mosquitoes could result in fewer mosquitoes becoming resistant to the insecticides used to kill them. And it would likely be difficult for the insects to evade traps based on their sense of smell, scientists say.

"The only way mosquitoes could (develop resistance) is if they were less attracted to human odors," said Andrew Read, a professor of biology and entomology at the University of Pennsylvania, who was not part of Logan's research. "And if they did that and started feeding on something else - like cows - that would be fine."

Read said the same strategy might also work to target insects that carry other diseases such as dengue and Japanese encephalitis.

In a related study, Logan and colleagues also sealed human volunteers into a foil bag to collect their body odor as they grew hot and sweaty. The odors were then piped into a tube next door, alongside another tube untainted by human odor. Afterwards, mosquitoes were released and had the option of flying into either tube. The insects buzzed in droves into the smelly tube.

Logan said the next step is to identify the chemicals in human foot odor so that it can be made synthetically for mosquito traps. But given mosquitoes' highly developed sense of smell, getting that formula right will be challenging.

Some smelly cheeses have the same odor as feet, Logan noted.

"But mosquitoes aren't attracted to cheese because they've evolved to know the difference," he said. "You have to get the mixture, ratios and concentrations of those chemicals exactly right otherwise the mosquito won't think it's a human."

Scientists said it's crucial to understand the subtleties of mosquito behavior. Other studies have shown mosquitoes don't become attracted to humans for about two weeks - the time it takes for the malaria parasites to become infectious for humans.

"At the moment, we only have these glimpses of how parasites are manipulating the mosquitoes," said George Christophides, chair of infectious disease and immunity at Imperial College London. "We need to exploit that information to help us control malaria."

--- Online: Journal: HTTP://DX.PLOS.ORG/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0063602 © 2013 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED. Learn more about our PRIVACY POLICY and TERMS OF USE.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Already under siege, the IRS was cited by a government watchdog for a $4.1 million training conference featuring luxury rooms and free drinks, even as conservative figures told Congress Tuesday they had been abused for years while seeking tax-exempt status.

A total of 132 IRS officials received room upgrades at the 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif., according to the report being released by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

One official stayed five nights in a room that regularly goes for $3,500 a night, George's report said, and another stayed four nights in a room that regularly goes for $1,499 a night. The agency paid a flat daily fee of $135 per hotel room, it said, but the upgrades were part of a package deal that added to the overall cost of the conference. Without the upgrades, the IRS could have negotiated a lower room rate, as required by agency procedures.

The inspector general's report was surfacing as the IRS came under fire again in connection with its targeting of conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the IG report ahead of its release.

In all, the IRS held 225 employee conferences from 2010 through 2012, at a total cost of $49 million, the report said. The Anaheim conference was the most expensive, but others were costly, too.

In 2010, for instance, the agency held a conference in Philadelphia that cost $2.9 million, one in San Diego that cost $1.2 million, and one in Atlanta that also cost $1.2 million.

Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has called the conferences "an unfortunate vestige from a prior era." Werfel took over the agency about two weeks ago, after President Barack Obama forced the previous acting commissioner to resign.

For more than 18 months during the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, IRS agents in a Cincinnati office singled out tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they sought tax-exempt status, according to a previous report by George.

The report issued last month said tea party groups were asked inappropriate questions about their donors, their political affiliations and their positions on political issues. The additional scrutiny delayed applications for an average of nearly two years, making it difficult for many of the groups to raise money.

On Tuesday, leaders of conservative groups complained to Congress that they were abused by the Internal Revenue Service for years as they sought tax-exempt status, including questions one Iowa anti-abortion group said it got about prayer meetings.

The testimony of the tea party and other conservative organizations before the House Ways and Means Committee was the first time groups complaining about the IRS's treatment have appeared directly before lawmakers since the IRS revealed the problem — and apologized for it — last month. They talked about applications for tax-exempt status that took three years for approval — or in some cases haven't yet been approved — and queries from the agency about the identity of their donors, video of meetings and whether speakers at such gatherings expressed political views.

"I'm a born-free American woman," Becky Gerritson, president of the Wetumpka Tea Party in Alabama, tearfully told the committee, adding, "I'm telling my government, you've forgotten your place."

Sue Martinek, president of the Coalition for Life of Iowa, an anti-abortion group, said the IRS asked them about "the content of our prayers."

"As Christians, we know we needed to pray for better solutions for unplanned pregnancies," she said.

The president of another group, the National Organization for Marriage, said the IRS publicly disclosed confidential information about donors. George Eastman said he thought the IRS's release of that information was designed to intimidate contributors to the group — which opposes same-sex marriage — "to chill them from donating again."

At Tuesday's Ways and Means hearing, committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., said the conservative groups were being singled out for their beliefs.

"They are Americans who did what we ask people to do every day — add their voice to the dialogue that defines our country," Camp said. "And for pursuing that passion, for simply exercising their First Amendment rights — the freedoms of association, expression and religion — the IRS singled them out."

The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Sander Levin, said it was time to correct the IRS's problems.

"You are owed an apology," Levin, from Michigan, told the witnesses. "We say to you that each of us is committed to doing our part to ensure that."

But even as they joined in expressing criticism of the IRS's behavior and sympathy for how witnesses' groups were treated, some Democrats tempered that. They noted that the IRS is responsible for seeing if organizations qualify for tax-exempt status — which includes not approving requests by groups that primarily engage in election campaigns.

"None of you were kept from organizing, or were silenced," said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. "We're talking about whether or not American taxpayers will subsidize your work. We're talking about a tax break."

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., noted that IRS commissioners over the past decade were appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican, and said, "This has nothing do with red versus blue."

Earlier, the leader of a small South Carolina tea party group said her organization first applied for tax-exempt status in 2010 — and is still waiting for the application to be processed.

"Nearly three years in waiting for an answer is totally unacceptable," said Dianne Belsom, president of the Laurens County Tea Party. "The IRS needs to be fully investigated and held accountable for its incompetence harassment and targeting of conservative groups."

Belsom said her group in rural South Carolina has about 60 members and "seeks to educate ourselves and fellow citizens on various issues pertinent to living in a free country." The group also holds candidate forums in election years, she said.

"I'd like to note that our group is a small-time operation with very little money and this represents a complete waste of time by the IRS in terms of any money they would collect if we were not tax-exempt," Belsom said.