McGwire Has the Trump Card Again

Mark McGwire swears it’s merely coincidence the way he keeps trumping Sammy Sosa.

Hours after Sosa hit his 54th home run, McGwire hit No. 55 to regain the major-league lead Sunday night in an 8-7 victory over the Atlanta Braves. His last three homers have come on the same day Sosa has homered.

But no, the St. Louis Cardinal slugger insisted, there was no extra incentive.

“I’ve said this time and time again,” McGwire said. “I only can take care of Mark McGwire, period.”

McGwire said he didn’t know about Sosa’s 482-foot homer--which helped the Chicago Cubs defeat the Colorado Rockies, 4-3, Sunday--until Manager Tony La Russa told him before the game.

The Cubs moved into a tie with the New York Mets for the lead in the National League wild-card race.

McGwire said it would be great if both he and Sosa finish with more than 60 homers.

“I’m extremely happy for [Sosa],” McGwire said. “He’s having a magical year, a way better year than I’m having.”

McGwire’s 501-foot homer off Atlanta reliever Dennis Martinez was one of his three hits and came one day after he was ejected for arguing a called third strike in the first inning. McGwire, who is within one home run of tying Hack Wilson’s NL record, has 26 games remaining to break Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers in 1961. Fifteen of those games are at Busch Stadium, where he has hit 29 homers to obliterate the previous record of 17.

McGwire’s first homer in four games came on 1-0 pitch from Martinez (3-6) and disappeared over the backdrop beyond the center-field wall. It was his fifth 500-foot-plus homer at Busch this season and the crowd of 44,051 demanded--and got--a curtain call.

It marked the fourth time in the last two weeks, the seventh time in five weeks and the 18th time this season McGwire and Sosa have homered on the same day.

Mark Petkovsek (7-4) gave up one hit in two scoreless innings. Juan Acevedo pitched the ninth for his fourth save.

Brave pitching had McGwire under control before Sunday, holding him to four for 27 with one homer and one RBI. Against Kevin Millwood, McGwire drew his major league-leading 141st walk in the first, singled and scored in the fourth and doubled and scored in the fifth to give him a career-high 105 runs scored.