McGwire Ties Jackson in Loss

Mark McGwire hit his 563rd home run to tie Reggie Jackson for sixth on baseball’s career list Thursday night, but the Detroit Tigers got a three-run shot from Tony Clark in a 7-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

McGwire’s ninth homer of the season was a two-run shot off Jeff Weaver in the seventh inning, snapping a two-for-40 skid since June 24. McGwire went one for two with two walks to raise his batting average to .189.

The slumping McGwire took no joy in catching Jackson.

“That’s not important to me,” he said. “Right now I really don’t care about it. It’s really meaningless. I’m sorry, there’s other things that are on my mind.”

It was McGwire’s 200th homer since joining the Cardinals at the trade deadline in 1997, making him only the third player in history to hit 200 homers in both leagues.

Frank Robinson, who hit 243 in the American League and 343 in the National League, and Fred McGriff (218 AL, 214 NL) are the others.

Weaver (8-8) gave up two runs and three hits in six-plus innings, knocking St. Louis, the defending NL Central champion, a game below .500.

Clark, the Tigers’ lone All-Star representative, hit his 14th homer off Jason Christiansen in the seventh inning.