McGwire Hits Two Homers in Cardinals’ 4-2 Victory

It’s looking like 1998 all over again for Mark McGwire, even if he’s talking only about 1999.

McGwire abruptly caught up to his record home-run pace of a year ago, connecting twice--his 54th multi-homer game--to lead the St. Louis Cardinals past the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2, Tuesday night at Pittsburgh.

After homering only once in five games, McGwire has three homers in two games and four in seven games--as many as last season.

Both of McGwire’s homers easily left Three Rivers Stadium, where he suddenly has found his home-run stroke. And both were off Pete Schourek (0-1), who was in the AL last year.

Only seven games into the season, McGwire already senses the attention is again shifting off the Cardinals (4-3) and onto his home runs.

“This is the game of baseball, it’s not a home run game,” McGwire said. “I do what I can to help the ballclub. If I don’t hit any home runs, it’s no big deal.”

McGwire won’t say if he thinks he can chase his own record, he says only, “That’s in the past, let’s talk about this year.”

McGwire didn’t wait long to deliver, hitting the first pitch he saw from Schourek--a sinking fastball around the knees--into the nearly filled left-field seats in the first inning.

He was intentionally walked in the third, then led off the fifth by lofting a knee-high fastball over the 400-foot mark in center and into the covered outfield seats.

McGwire was intentionally walked again in the seventh--this time by rookie Jason Phillips--after Edgar Renteria’s double.

McGwire drew another walk in the ninth as many of the 19,724 fans booed before rushing for the exits, even before the Pirates batted.

Houston 7, San Francisco 3--Mike Hampton beat the Giants for the seventh straight time and the Astros stole seven bases at San Francisco.

Derek Bell hit his 100th home run, and Tim Bogar had a two-run double for the Astros.

Houston’s seven steals, including two each by Craig Biggio and Carl Everett, were one short of a team record. The steals set up two runs.

Barry Bonds hit his third home run leading off the Giants ninth.

Milwaukee 8, Montreal 4--Jeromy Burnitz homered for the second straight game and Marquis Grissom also homered at Montreal as the Expos lost their fourth game in a row.

Only 5,589 were on hand to see the game, five days after a near-sellout crowd of 43,918 attended Montreal’s home opener. It was the smallest crowd at Olympic Stadium since Oct. 3, 1990, when 4,262 saw the season finale.

Steve Woodard (1-1) pitched eight effective innings and also went two for three at the plate. Brad Fullmer and Michael Barrett hit solo homers for the Expos, and Montreal added two runs in the eighth.

Geoff Jenkins went three for four for Milwaukee with a double and two RBIs.