Johnson Keeps McGwire at 65

Thinking about the matchup, the 6-foot-10 Randy Johnson against the 6-foot-5 Mark McGwire, power against power, Houston Astro Manager Larry Dierker smiled Wednesday night and said, “It’s almost mythological. Like Paul Bunyan and Samson.”

Well, the results weren’t that legendary for either, although Johnson improved to 10-1 with the Astros via a 7-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before 38,997 at Busch Stadium. McGwire, tied for the home run lead at 65 when Sammy Sosa connected twice earlier Wednesday, walked twice, singled and twice flied out deep.

On a cool night that hinted of fall, both Dierker and Johnson said that McGwire’s drives to left off Johnson in the seventh and center off Billy Wagner in the ninth probably would have been out in warmer weather.

Johnson, preparing for Game 1 of the division series, struck out eight but walked six and yielded eight hits in a seven-inning stint in which he delivered 136 pitches.

“I obviously wanted to pitch better with my next start being in the playoffs, but I got my work in, and to give up only one run when I didn’t have my best control or velocity shows how far I’ve come as a pitcher,” he said.

Johnson walked McGwire in each of his first two at-bats and was booed loudly.

“Man,” he said, smiling later, “you’ve got to cut me some slack.”

McGwire said he had “zero pitches” to drive but otherwise “had five great at-bats. It just goes to show how the hardest thing to do in sports is hit a home run.”

He added that being tied by Sosa again was “nothing to be upset or ashamed about.”

The Astros will continue to be a factor in the home run race, as well as the wild-card race.

They go home for three games with Sosa and the Chicago Cubs, starting Friday, while McGwire begins a four-game series here against the Montreal Expos tonight. Dierker said he would play to win against the Cubs, who are tied with the New York Mets in the wild-card standings, but that he also would rest a regular or two in each game in preparation for the playoffs.

“We owe it to ourselves and baseball to go as hard as we can,” he said.

Wednesday’s win was the 100th, an Astro first.

“When people talk about the really fine teams,” Dierker said, “they don’t talk about teams with 99 wins. It reaffirms what I thought when we got Randy, that we became one of the best teams in baseball.”

Second baseman Craig Biggio, who along with teammate Moises Alou would be a possible MVP if this wasn’t a season dominated by McGwire and Sosa, stole his 50th base to become only the second player this century and first since Tris Speaker in 1912 to steal 50 bases and collect 50 doubles in the same season.