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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. LOUIS -- Mark McGwire made more history, and the St.
Louis Cardinals hit back-to-back home runs for the second straight
game.
|  | | Mark McGwire connects for No. 20 Wednesday night. |
McGwire and Ray Lankford did an encore of their 1-2 punch the
previous night, connecting on consecutive pitches in a 5-1 victory
over the Florida Marlins Wednesday night. McGwire, who has six
homers in his last six games, also became the fastest player to
reach 20 in one season.
"I'm just seeing it and hitting it, like I always do," McGwire
said. "I made some adjustments last week and I'm just going with
the adjustments right now."
The Cardinals have hit consecutive homers 13 times, two shy of
the NL record set by the 1956 Cincinnati Reds. Their total was
reduced by one earlier in the day after consultation with The
Sporting News, Elias Sports Bureau and the Society for American
Baseball Research.
St. Louis had been counting three straight homers on April 6 as
two back-to-back instances.
The 1996 Seattle Mariners set the major league record of 18,
hitting three in a row once and back-to-back homers 17 times.
"The Cardinals have an offensive machine here," Marlins
manager John Boles said. "I know that they're very pleased. It's
certainly a fun club to watch if you're a Cardinals fan, which I'm
not."
Edgar Renteria and Jim Edmonds singled to start the sixth and
McGwire snapped a 1-1 tie with his major league-leading 20th homer,
a towering drive to left center off Vladimir Nunez (0-4) that
landed in the first row of the bleachers. Lankford hit another
towering drive, his ninth homer, to put the Cardinals ahead 5-1.
Both homers, which gave the Cardinals a major-league leading 94,
came on the first pitch.
McGwire has homered in three straight games, has six in six
games and 542 for his career, six behind Mike Schmidt for seventh
place on the career list.
He also reached 20 homers in his first 35 games, six fewer than
the previous mark, set by Mickey Mantle in 1956 and matched by
McGwire two years ago. This was the Cardinals' 45th game, and
McGwire missed 10 games, nine due to a back injury.
The homer was McGwire's 100th in 201 career games at Busch
Stadium. Lankford is the career leader at Busch with 102 in 655
games.
Lankford also robbed Kevin Millar of a home run in the sixth,
leaping high above the left-field wall to make the catch.
"I can get a little higher than that, not like I used to,"
Lankford said. "But I cheated a little bit, I used the wall."
Garrett Stephenson (7-0) pitched a five-hitter for his first
complete game since Sept. 24, 1997, against Atlanta, retiring the
final 13 batters. He struck out five and walked three, sending the
Marlins to their eighth loss in nine games.
"I always think I'm going to make it through," Stephenson
said. "You go out there and work as hard as you can for as long as
you can."
He's 13-3 since joining the Cardinals last season, and St. Louis
began the night averaging 9.3 runs in his starts.
Nunez, who had been 3-1 with an 0.82 ERA in four relief
appearances against the Cardinals, gave up five runs and nine hits
in six innings. He's 3-11 for his career as a starter.
The Marlins have lost eight of nine.
"We need to get off the dime," Boles said. "Somebody's got to
hit a three-run home run for us."
Game
notes
Luis Castillo walked and singled, reaching base for the
13th straight game. But Castillo, who leads the majors with 18
steals, was thrown out in the first and fourth innings by backup C
Eli Marrero and has been caught stealing eight times. He limped off
the field favoring his left knee after getting caught in the fifth
and was taken out of the game. ... Marrero entered the game 0-for-6
throwing out runners. ... Lankford has been involved in only three
of the Cardinals' back-to-back homer instances.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Florida Clubhouse
St. Louis Clubhouse
Back-to-back madness: Stat gurus set record straight
RECAPS
Baltimore 4
Seattle 3
Boston 6
Toronto 3
Detroit 10
Cleveland 9
Oakland 9
Tampa Bay 2
NY Yankees 12
Chi. White Sox 4
Kansas City 3
Texas 0
Anaheim 6
Minnesota 5
Philadelphia 9
Houston 7
Atlanta 11
Milwaukee 2
St. Louis 5
Florida 1
Colorado 9
Chicago Cubs 4
Arizona 6
Pittsburgh 5
Cincinnati 10
Los Angeles 3
San Diego 5
NY Mets 4
San Francisco 18
Montreal 0
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