31 Down, 31 to Go for Cardinals’ McGwire

Mark McGwire is halfway home.

McGwire hit his 31st home run Friday night, a grand slam that left him 31 homers shy of breaking Roger Maris’ record and led the St. Louis Cardinals over the Arizona Diamondbacks, 9-4, at Phoenix.

After a batting-practice exhibition in which he became the first player to hit a ball completely out of the new Bank One Ballpark, McGwire connected off Andy Benes in an eight-run third inning.

The Cardinals played their 65th game, of which McGwire has played in 59. Maris had 26 homers in the New York Yankees’ first 65 games while setting the mark in 1961.

McGwire leads the majors in home runs and is tied with Texas’ Juan Gonzalez for the big league lead with 80 RBIs. McGwire has hit 15 home runs in his last 20 games.

It was McGwire’s 11th grand slam. He has homered in the last 11 series in which he has played, having missed last week’s three-game set at Dodger Stadium because of back spasms.

McGwire put on a show in batting practice, launching a drive that landed on a ledge above the American flag in left-center field and bounced through a window onto Jefferson Street. The ledge--483 feet from home plate and 89 feet above the field--helps support a huge advertising panel that was opened to allow wind to circulate in the roofed ballpark.

McGwire’s 438-foot slam and Royce Clayton’s three-run homer highlighted the big inning that carried the Cardinals to only their second win in the last nine games.

Philadelphia 4, Chicago 0--Curt Schilling matched a season-high with 13 strikeouts in seven innings and Rico Brogna hit a two-run homer to lift the Phillies past the Cubs at Philadelphia.

Schilling (6-7) gave up four hits in his first victory in six starts. The right-hander raised his major league-leading strikeout total to 156.

Mark Leiter pitched two innings of one-hit relief.

Montreal 7, Atlanta 5--The Expos’ Darond Stovall hit a grand slam in the ninth inning and the the Brave bullpen faltered again, blowing a three-run lead as the Expos rallied to win at Atlanta.

Greg Maddux worked seven strong innings in his bid to become the majors’ first 10-game winner, but it was wasted by Mark Wohlers and Mike Cather.

With the Braves up, 5-2, in the ninth inning, Wohlers walked Chris Widger on four pitches and was replaced by Cather (2-2), who hit Mark Gruzielanek and walked Brad Fullmer to load the bases. Stovall, hitting only .218, followed with an opposite-field drive to left.

Cincinnati 8, Houston 1--Barry Larkin spent two hours in the front office talking about his trade request, then singled in a four-run first inning and added a solo homer and a sacrifice fly at Cincinnati.

The Reds hit five singles in a four-run first inning off Jose Lima (7-3) to set up only their second victory in 10 games.

Larkin had the second of the singles and scored a run to help the Reds end a five-game losing streak.

Milwaukee 4, Pittsburgh 2--Jose Valentin hit his first two home runs since April 27 to back Scott Karl’s effective pitching at Pittsburgh.

Karl (6-3) gave up two runs and five hits over 6 1/3 innings.

Pittsburgh loaded the bases in the ninth off Bob Wickman on a walk to Kevin Young and singles by Jermaine Allensworth and Jose Guillen. But Wickman struck out Aramis Ramirez and got Kevin Polcovich to hit into a game-ending double play for his fourth save.

Ramirez’s first major league homer gave Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but Valentin answered in the third with the first of his two leadoff homers off Francisco Cordova (6-4).

Florida 4, New York 3--Todd Dunwoody drove in the winning run with a two-out infield single in the ninth inning as the Marlins won at Miami.

Gregg Zaun drew a one-out walk and Craig Counsell reached on a forceout, hitting a grounder that glanced off Brian Bohanon (2-3).

Bohanon gave up a single to John Cangelosi that sent Counsell to third. Dunwoody followed with a grounder that second baseman Carlos Baerga knocked down, but could not control.

Matt Mantei (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings for the win. His last decision in the majors was a victory for Florida in 1996.