Homers Don’t Tell Full Story in This One

Ray Lankford turned a miserable performance into a memorable one Saturday, after five strikeouts with two big hits in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 13-inning 9-8 victory over the Chicago Cubs at St. Louis.

Lankford’s heroics, a two-out game-tying homer in the 11th and a game-winning single in the 13th, overshadowed homers by both players chasing Roger Maris’ record. Mark McGwire hit his major league-leading 46th homer leading off the fourth. And Sammy Sosa tied the game in the ninth with a two-run shot, his 44th.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa said.

“It’s one of the greatest games I’ve ever been associated with,” Cub Manager Jim Riggleman said. “They thought they had it and we came back. We thought we had it and they came back.”

McGwire went one for three with four walks, giving him 119 on the season. Two of the walks were intentional, giving him 26. Sosa was two for five with a walk.

McGwire’s homer ended a 29-at-bat drought, his longest of the season. He needs 15 homers to tie Maris’ record 61 set in 1961. The Cardinals have 47 games remaining. Chicago has 45 games left.

“Why is everybody so worried about this?” McGwire asked. “There are more important things to worry about than Mark McGwire hitting home runs. Let’s talk about the game.”

It was worth talking about.

After Sosa’s ninth-inning blast tied the score, 5-5, the Cubs seemed on their way to breaking a two-game losing streak when Tyler Houston hit a two-run homer in the 11th off reliever Curtis King.

But Chicago shortstop Jeff Blauser let Brian Jordan’s one-out grounder go under his glove in the bottom of the inning. McGwire struck out, bringing up Lankford.

At that point, Lankford hadn’t put the ball in play--he was 0 for 5 with the five strikeouts, tying a team record set by Dick Allen in 1970.

“He told me he was swinging like he had a hole in his bat,” La Russa said.

But Lankford hit an opposite-field shot off Rod Beck to left to tie the game.

Again, the Cubs took the lead in the 12th on a single by Sosa, his league-leading 114th RBI of the season.

Again, the Cardinals answered. This time, catcher Eli Marrero homered off Beck.

In the 13th, reliever Dave Stevens (1-1), the Cubs’ seventh pitcher, walked Pat Kelly, who stole second and went to third on Brian Jordan’s single. McGwire was walked intentionally, and the Cubs brought center-fielder Lance Johnson in as a fifth infielder. But Lankford slapped a single well to Johnson’s right.

Atlanta 14, San Francisco 6--Keith Lockhart, Andres Galarraga, Javy Lopez, Andruw Jones and Greg Colbrunn homered as part of a season-high 20-hit outburst as the Braves routed the Giants at San Francisco.

The five homers pushed Atlanta’s league-leading total to 161.

Kevin Millwood (13-6) gave up five runs on five hits in six innings after being staked to a 10-0 lead. He struck out six and walked four in his third victory in four decisions.

New York 4, Colorado 3--Edgardo Alfonzo hit a two-run home run at Denver and Armando Reynoso scattered 10 hits in seven innings against his former team.

John Olerud went two for four to improve his league-leading batting average to .346 and extend his hitting streak to an NL season-high 22 games for the Mets, who trail the Cubs by half a game in the NL wild-card race.

Reynoso (3-0), the second all-time winningest pitcher for the Rockies, gave up three runs, struck out two and walked three.

Cincinnati 4, Milwaukee 0--Dennis Reyes won his second consecutive start for the Reds at Cincinnati.

One night after they drubbed Milwaukee, 17-0, the Reds took advantage of a coaching mistake and three double plays to give the Brewers their fourth consecutive loss.

Reyes (2-4), obtained from the Dodgers along with Paul Konerko for closer Jeff Shaw on July 4, has won both his starts for the Reds since being called up from the minors a week ago.

Montreal 5, Arizona 3--Shane Andrews homered for the second game in a row and Dustin Hermanson pitched seven solid innings to lead the Expos at Montreal.

Andrews hit a three-run shot off Amaury Telemaco (4-6) in the fifth as the Expos won for the fifth time in its last six games.

Hermanson gave up three runs on eight hits and a walk.

Wilton Guerrero went three for four in his first leadoff appearance for the Expos and Terry Jones went two for three with a sacrifice in the second spot.

Houston 7, Philadelphia 6--The tying run scored on Scott Rolen’s error and Mark Leiter hit Richard Hidalgo with a pitch to force in the winning run as the Astros scored twice in the ninth to win at Houston.

Bill Spiers led off the inning with a double off Leiter (6-3) and Derek Bell followed with a single. Jeff Bagwell hit a grounder to third, but Rolen threw past catcher Bobby Estalella for an error and Spiers was able to score. Runners were left at second and third.

After Moises Alou was intentionally walked, Leiter hit Hidalgo in the right leg to give the Astros their 18th victory in their final at-bat.

Estalella hit two homers for the Phillies.