Walker Has Three Homers in Rockies’ Win

Larry Walker became the first player to hit three home runs in Busch Stadium since Mark McGwire during his 70-homer season, then laughed off any comparisons.

“My name’s Larry, not Mark,” said Walker after going four for five and tying a team record with eight runs batted in in the Colorado Rockies’ 9-7 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday night. “I don’t have Popeye arms, I’ve just got little tiny ones.”

Walker, who had 23 homers last year and won the NL batting title with a .363 average, hit three-run homers his first two at-bats against Jose Jimenez (2-1). After singling in the fifth, he hit a two-run homer off Scott Radinsky in the seventh for a 9-6 lead.

With a chance to tie the major league mark for home runs in a game, Walker grounded out in the ninth. He got a nice round of applause as he returned to the dugout.

After the game, the Cardinals were applauding too.

“He’s a batting champ and an MVP,” said reliever Mike Mohler, who gave up a single to Walker in the fifth. “You know he’s going to get hot and you try to shut him down for as long as you can.

“Tonight, we weren’t able to contain him. He kind of did it to us by himself.”

The RBI total tied the club mark set by Andres Galarraga on June 27, 1996, against the Dodgers. Walker has one other three-homer game, on April 5, 1997, at Montreal.

“He’s obviously one of the great players in the game, in all ways,” Manager Jim Leyland said. “Any manager, coach or general manager would agree he’s one of the best.”

Walker, who has 20 career multi-homer games, missed the first seven games of the season because of a strained rib-cage muscle. He entered the game with no homers, five RBIs and a .235 average.

He’s the first visiting player to hit three homers at Busch Stadium since Larry Parrish of Montreal on May 29, 1977. McGwire had a three-homer game April 14, 1998, against Arizona.

Arizona 10, Houston 6--Matt Williams hurt Arizona with the first three-error game of his career but hit a tiebreaking single off Billy Wagner in a five-run ninth inning at Houston.

Wagner had given up only three hits and struck out 14 in seven shutout innings before entering this game with the score tied, 5-5, but he quickly got in trouble.

Tony Womack singled for his third hit of the game, stole second and took third on Jay Bell’s single. Luis Gonzalez, who tied the score with a two-run double off Scott Elarton in the seventh, loaded the bases with a walk and Williams lined a single to left for a 6-5 lead.

Atlanta 5, Pittsburgh 4--It took a dramatic ninth-inning rally for Tom Glavine to avoid falling to 0-4 for the first time in his career.

Chipper Jones tied the score with a two-run double and Andruw Jones singled in the winning run at Atlanta.

Glavine (1-3) pitched an eight-hitter for Atlanta’s first complete game, striking out six and walking four.

Chicago 6, Florida 1--Mark Grace had four hits and Steve Trachsel gave up three hits in seven innings at Miami for the victory. Trachsel (1-2) scored the Cubs’ first run after he doubled in the fifth.

San Francisco 4, Montreal 3--Joe Nathan pitched eight strong innings in his second start and Charlie Hayes had two RBIs at Montreal to lead the Giants to their fifth straight win. The game drew 4,998, the smallest crowd at Olympic Stadium this year.