McGwire Hits 37th Homer

Another home run by Mark McGwire, another loss for his St. Louis Cardinals. It has become an annoyingly familiar pattern for the slugger.

Kirk Rueter pitched eight strong innings, outdueling Kent Bottenfield and overcoming McGwire’s 37th homer of the season, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Cardinals, 2-1, Tuesday at San Francisco.

McGwire’s 10th homer in his last 13 games and moved him past Lou Gehrig into sole possession of 16th place on the career list at 494.

Rueter (9-5), who set a career high with 10 strikeouts, allowed one run on three hits and his only walk was an intentional pass to McGwire.

While McGwire’s first-inning homer went about 407 feet, the Giants scored their runs in the sixth on two balls that didn’t make it out of the infield. Barry Bonds got an RBI on a slow grounder and Ellis Burks followed with a run-scoring infield single.

McGwire took the major league lead for the first time since opening day.

With 256 homers since the start of the 1995 season, McGwire matched Babe Ruth’s record for most homers in five consecutive seasons. Ruth’s total was from 1926-30.

Atlanta 10, Milwaukee 2--Randall Simon had three hits, including one of the Braves’ four home runs at Atlanta.

Hideo Nomo (9-3) lost for only the second time in nine decisions, allowing Andruw Jones’ two-run homer in the fourth, Bret Boone’s solo shot in the fifth and Simon’s two-run drive in the sixth.

Houston 6, Colorado 3--Matt Mieske went three for four and had three RBIs for the second consecutive night for the Astros at Denver.

Jose Lima (14-5) gave up all three runs and nine hits in eight innings, tying Kent Bottenfield of St. Louis and Curt Schilling of Philadelphia for the league lead in wins.

Pittsburgh 5, New York 1--Al Martin hit two solo homers, including one to lead off the game at New York, and Kris Benson (8-8) made it hold up with his first career complete.

Chicago 4, Montreal 2--Terry Mulholland came within an out of his first complete game in two years and hit a two-run single to lead the Cubs at Montreal.

Mulholland (6-6) needs one victory to reach 100.

Florida 6, Philadelphia 2--The Marlins scored six runs in the first inning against rookie Randy Wolf at Philadelphia and ended their six-game losing streak.

Alex Fernandez (5-6) won for the first time in three starts, and the Marlins beat the Phillies for the first time since their first meeting on April 9.

Wolf (5-2) lost his second consecutive game after winning his first five big league decisions.

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Mac Attack

Comparing Mark McGwire’s home run rate through the same point last season:

1999

Games: 101

Cardinal record: 50-51

At-bats: 332

Homers: 37

At-bats per homer: 9.0

*

1998

Games: 101

Cardinal record: 48-53

At-bats: 318

Homers: 43

At-bats per homer: 7.4