NL ROUNDUP : McGwire’s 55th Helps Cardinals Defeat Pirates

Mark McGwire was in a jovial mood after ending a 24 at-bat homer drought with No. 55 Friday night.

After McGwire hit a three-run shot in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 11-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis, he joked that this might be his last season. The reason: He finally got to see Alan Benes, who has been sidelined since July 30, 1997, because of two shoulder operations, pitch.

Benes was injured a day before McGwire was acquired in a trading-deadline deal with the Oakland Athletics.

“I’m going to seriously consider retirement after the season,” McGwire said, tongue in cheek. “I’ve done everything I wanted to accomplish since coming over here, and one of them was seeing Alan Benes pitch. I don’t need to do anything else.”

McGwire has 512 homers, tying Eddie Mathews and Ernie Banks for 12th on the all-time list. During the drought since he hit Nos. 53 and 54 on Sept. 3, he had three singles and one run batted in.

“I’ve been seeing the ball fine,” McGwire said. “When you don’t get anything to hit, you’re not going to do much, it’s pretty self-explanatory.”

McGwire’s homer against Mike Williams in the eighth inning opened the door for Benes, because closer Ricky Bottalico had been warming up with a three-run lead. Benes, who was one of the National League’s dominant pitchers when he was injured, struck out two and gave up a hit in the ninth.

“Just looking at the results, I’d have to say it’s the best-case scenario,” Benes said. “I was just hoping to throw the ball over the plate and be fortunate enough to have them hit the ball at guys.”

Arizona 3, Philadelphia 1--On his 36th birthday, Randy Johnson threw a six-hitter at Phoenix and set a personal best for strikeouts in a season.

Johnson (15-9) struck out seven, giving him 335 for the season, the seventh-most in major league history. His previous best was 329 strikeouts set last year with the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros.

With four starts remaining, the 6-foot-10 left-hander from USC needs 49 strikeouts to break the record of 383 set by Nolan Ryan in 1973.

Houston 6, Chicago 4--Carl Everett hit two home runs at Houston, the second a two-run shot in the 13th inning that gave the Astros their eighth consecutive victory.

Billy Wagner (4-1) pitched a perfect 13th inning, including a strikeout of Sammy Sosa on four consecutive fastballs. Sosa finished 0 for 6 with three strikeouts and remained at 59 homers for the season.

Colorado 15, Milwaukee 3--Brian Bohanon pitched eight strong innings and had two hits, including the first home run of his career, at Denver.

San Diego 10, Montreal 3--Phil Nevin homered in consecutive innings and drove in a career-high five runs at San Diego.

Atlanta 4, San Francisco 2--Russ Ortiz threw consecutive wild pitches in the eighth inning, allowing Chipper Jones to score the go-ahead run at San Francisco.

Cincinnati 4, Florida 2--Barry Larkin hit his first homer since June 21 for the Reds at Cincinnati.