McGwire Not Impressed With Latest Feat

Mark McGwire might have been the only one in Busch Stadium who didn’t grasp the significance of his latest long ball.

After becoming the first major league player to hit 25 homers before June 1, he did his best to downplay the feat.

“It’s great for historians,” McGwire said Monday after the Cardinals’ 6-1 loss to Colorado at St. Louis. “We didn’t play very well today. So for all you historians, take it. Records are no good to you while you’re still playing the game. Period.”

McGwire sent a first-inning pitch from John Thomson 433 feet and just below Big Mac Land, the section in the upper deck in left field named for him by a fast-food restaurant. He has four homers in three games, and nine in the last seven.

“It’s the greatest show on Earth,” said Rocky left fielder Dante Bichette, who played McGwire three steps from the wall. “It’s fun to watch him hit.”

McGwire has 30 homers in 49 games at Busch Stadium since St. Louis acquired him from Oakland last Aug. 31. He tied Texas’ Juan Gonzalez for the major league RBI lead at 61. The previous record for homers before June 1 was 24, set last year by Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr.

Walker doubled to extend his hitting streak to 20, the best in the majors this season. Bichette had a three-run double in the first and Ellis Burks broke out of a slump with three doubles.

Atlanta 9, Chicago 5--Kevin Millwood won his seventh game and Curtis Pride had two hits and two RBIs before being ejected after a collision at home plate at Atlanta.

Millwood (7-1) gave up five hits, walked one and struck out six in seven innings as the Braves won for the sixth time in seven games and improved to 37-14, their best start in franchise history.

Millwood helped separate Pride and Cub catcher Sandy Martinez after the two got into a shoving match after a play at the plate in the fifth inning.

“I just wanted to get him [Martinez] off of Curtis,” Millwood said. “Obviously nobody wants to be on the bottom of the pile, but I wasn’t going to stand around and let the guy hurt Curtis.”

Pride, who bruised his right arm in the collision, said he wasn’t looking to fight.

“I made a good, hard, clean play. I’m a nice guy and I can’t pick a fight,” Pride said.

Chicago Manager Jim Riggleman said the confrontation was no big deal.

“It really wasn’t that big of a fracas,” he said. “Sandy took a very hart hit, and did a great job to hang on to the ball. It’s easy for tempers to flare on a play like that.”

Keith Lockhart and Andruw Jones each had four hits for Atlanta, which had a season-high 18. Javy Lopez added three hits, including his 11th homer, and Michael Tucker scored three runs for the Braves, who had 10 extra-base hits.

Philadelphia 5, Montreal 3--Rico Brogna hit a two-run double with two out in the 14th inning to help give the Phillies a win at Montreal.

Pinch-hitter Ruben Amaro led off the 14th with a single off Shane Bennett (1-3), Montreal’s fifth pitcher. Doug Glanville singled him to second before Brogna’s game-winning hit.

“It felt great,” Brogna said. “I was struggling all night, and by the 10th or 11th inning I was really tired. I tried to dig down as deep as I could, so to win a game like that is big.”

Wayne Gomes (3-1) gave up two hits in three scoreless innings.

“I threw strikes,” Gomes said. “I got a couple of groundballs when I fell behind in the count. I made two good pitches to [Brad] Fullmer. They were 2-0 pitches, and I threw him two good sinkers. And I made some good pitches early in the count.”

Jerry Spradlin struck out the side in the 14th for his first save.

Arizona 3, San Diego 2--Andy Ashby gave up the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the eighth inning at Phoenix as the Padres lost three in a row for the first time this year.

With the score 2-2, David Dellucci singled and took third when Ashby (5-4) made a wild pickoff attempt for an error. With two out, an Ashby pitch got past catcher Carlos Hernandez, and Dellucci scored with head-first slide.

“We’re aggressive,” Dellucci said. “We worked on that in spring training. We knew that it was going to be hard for us to come by runs sometimes, and that’s how you get your runs--being aggressive, taking extra bases, getting guys in scoring position.”

Omar Daal gave up four hits in seven innings but did not get the win as Russ Springer (3-2) pitched a hitless eighth.

“He pitched well,” San Diego’s Tony Gwynn said of Daal after going hitless in three at-bats. “Anytime you only get one rally, you have to tip your hat to him.

“That’s Baseball 101.”