Royals Outlast Cardinals, 17-13

When Mark McGwire hit one of his longest home runs of the year in the fifth inning, Wednesday night’s game at Kauffman Stadium was just getting warmed up.

At 4 hours 8 minutes, it was the longest nine-inning game in Kansas City Royal history as the Royals beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 17-13.

The Royals scored eight runs in the eighth and then watched in growing trepidation as the Cardinals scored four in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate before Eric Davis finally grounded out.

“This was a mess,” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said. “We made three or four rallies and so did they.”

Joe Randa went five for five in what Royal Manager Tony Muser called “a great night for the offense.”

“I was taking it pitch by pitch,” Muser said. “Was I uneasy? Yes, when the tying run comes to the plate.”

With one on and two out in the fifth, McGwire hit a drive that witnesses said bounced off the last row of seats in the left-field bleachers and rolled almost to the concession stand.

The drive against Terry Mathews tied the score, 4-4, and was measured by a stadium chart at 434 feet. McGwire’s second homer in two days and 19th of the season trails only the 484-foot monster he hit on May 22 at Dodger Stadium and a 435-footer on June 3 against the Florida Marlins at Miami.

The previous nine-inning record for a Royal game was 3:53 at Baltimore in 1995.

“This is not the way baseball is supposed to be played,” said Kansas City outfielder Johnny Damon, who had two hits and two runs batted in. “But we kept it up all night long. When they’d score, we’d come back and score more.”

The Cardinals tied the score, 9-9, with three runs in the eighth on Edgar Renteria’s RBI single and a bases-loaded, two-run single by Ray Lankford against Matt Whisenant.

In the bottom of the eighth, Jermaine Dye and Randa hit RBI singles against Ricky Bottalico.

Dye scored the 12th run from third base on Tim Spehr’s groundout and Carlos Beltran and Mike Sweeney hit two-run doubles. Beltran and Carlos Febles each had three RBIs.

Fernando Tatis and Eli Marrero also homered for the Cardinals.

The loser was Scott Radinsky (1-1), and the victory went to Whisenant (2-1).