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Saturday, Oct. 2 1:15pm ET
Big Mac takes two-homer lead over Sosa | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Mark McGwire appears to be closing in on a home run title he insists he couldn't care less about. McGwire hit No. 64 Saturday, tying him for 10th on the career list and putting him two ahead of silent Sammy Sosa, who had to be content with the Chicago Cubs' 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Big Mac has three home run titles (1987, 1996 and 1998), and earlier this week he said nobody remembers them. "I'm not thinking about home runs or how many I have or he has," McGwire said. "I'm thinking about the game." McGwire, who walked his last three times at the plate, has five homers in his last six games. Sosa, who was 1-for-5 with a single and didn't clear the infield his other four at-bats, has one homer in the last 10. Sosa said he wasn't pressing or tired. "I'm not here to try and hit everything out of the ballpark," Sosa said. "Whatever happens, happens. If I finish with 62, that's pretty good for me. I'm real confident with what I have. Tomorrow is my last game, so I'm going to go out there and do the best that I can." The Cubs and Cardinals close the regular season Sunday. McGwire said he won't change his approach to try to close out Sosa. "I'm going to play the last game the way I always do," McGwire said. "I'm going to play it as a team game, not an individual game, or the way the media wants me to play it." Sosa had no reaction in right field when McGwire hit a 3-0 pitch from Andrew Lorraine into the shrubbery over the center-field wall, a drive estimated at 424 feet, in the first. It was his first homer on that count since joining the Cardinals on July 31, 1997. "The ball I hit out was a nasty fastball on the outside corner," McGwire said. "I rarely swing at 3-0 pitches, and I said, 'I might as well go for it.' " Besides putting some distance between himself and Sosa with his third consecutive homer to straightaway center, McGwire tied Willie McCovey and Ted Williams at 521 for his career. In his next at-bat, McGwire drew an intentional walk with two outs and a runner on third in the third. Busch Stadium fans always boo when McGwire walks, and he's done so 293 times the past two seasons, but perhaps the loudest chorus of all was reserved for this occasion. Lorraine then was roundly booed when he came to the plate in the fourth. Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had no problem with the tactic. "We try to take care of our business," La Russa said. "As you can see from our record, we have enough trouble with that." McGwire had no problem with it, either, and Lorraine enthusiastically endorsed it. "To me, walking him was a slam dunk," Lorraine said. "At that point in the game, I was all in favor of it." In the last four seasons McGwire has hit 244 home runs, an average of 61 per season. Sixty-one was the record held by Roger Maris for 37 seasons before McGwire hit 70 and Sosa 66 last year. "It's amazing, absolutely phenomenal," Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. In the 1990s McGwire has hit 404 home runs, 22 more than Ken Griffey Jr. Roosevelt Brown's first career homer, a two-run shot in the seventh off Garrett Stephenson (6-3), put the Cubs ahead 4-3. Jeff Reed added another two-run homer in the eighth. Neither McGwire nor Sosa came close to a home run on Friday night, the first game of the season-ending three-game series between the Cardinals and Cubs. Mark Grace's RBI single gave the Cubs the lead in the first, but he later ran his team into an inning-ending double play when he was caught between second and third on a fly ball. Edgar Renteria and Fernando Tatis had RBI doubles in the third to put the Cardinals ahead 3-1, and Reed had an RBI double in the fourth for Chicago. Reed hit his first homer since joining the Cubs July 8, and third overall, with a man on in the eighth to make it 6-3. It was the first homer allowed by Lance Painter since May 28. Bobby Ayala (2-7) worked two innings of hitless relief and Rick Aguilera worked the ninth for his eighth save. Stephenson lost for the second time in three starts to the Cubs, allowing four runs on seven hits in seven innings. Game notesGrace is the hits leader of the 1990s with 1,754. ... Tatis has 34 home runs, two more than the previous Cardinals record set by Ken Boyer in 1962. ... McGwire has an NL-leading 146 RBIs and needs one to tie his career best set last year. ... The Cubs are 26-50 since the All-Star break but have won 11 of their last 18. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Chicago Cubs Clubhouse St. Louis Clubhouse RECAPS Toronto 7 Cleveland 3
Chicago Cubs 6
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