McGwire’s Homer Lifts Cardinals

Mark McGwire came back with a home run, as if he had never left.

McGwire homered in his first game since April 15, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday at St. Louis.

“It’s just nice to have good at-bats,” McGwire said. “A home run is a home run.”

McGwire, activated before the game, connected against Paul Rigdon (3-2) leading off the sixth inning, his 556th homer and second this season. It put the Cardinals ahead, 2-0.

“It’s always good to see Mark because he’s good for the game,” Milwaukee’s James Mouton said. “After he hit the home run, I was a little less glad to see him.”

McGwire, who was sidelined about six weeks after a setback in his recovery from off-season surgery for tendinitis in his right knee, hit second in the order for the first time in his career.

“The only reason to hit him there is to get him some extra at-bats,” Manager Tony La Russa said. “As soon as we know his timing is right, he’s the classic cleanup hitter.”

McGwire grounded into a double play in the first inning, then singled and scored in the fourth. He left the game after the sixth.

Matt Morris (7-3) gave up six hits in six shutout innings as the Cardinals won for the 15th time in 20 games. Rookie Albert Pujols hit two home runs for the Cardinals.

“To come back and have a beautiful day like today and get McGwire back, it’s an uplifting feeling,” Morris said.

The Brewers lost their third in a row. After scoring one run in the previous two games, the Brewers averted a shutout when Pujols booted pinch-hitter Angel Echevarria’s grounder to third with the bases loaded in the ninth.

Milwaukee’s Jeromy Burnitz, La Russa and the Cardinals’ Bobby Bonilla, were in a first-inning argument that led to both benches clearing. All three were ejected. Morris hit Geoff Jenkins in a shoulder one pitch after Jenkins barely missed an upper-deck home run.

Atlanta 5, Montreal 3--John Smoltz pitched 6 2/3 strong innings in a rain-shortened game at Atlanta for his first victory since 1999.

Smoltz (1-2) sat out the 2000 season and first 6 1/2 weeks of this season after having ligament transplant surgery on his right elbow in March 2000.

Smoltz, whose fastball was clocked as high as 95 mph, gave up two runs and eight hits in his third start of the season. He walked none and struck out five as the Braves (25-25) got back to .500.

Quilvio Veras drove in two runs with a run-scoring single and sacrifice fly, Andruw Jones and Brian Jordan added run-scoring singles for the Braves and Rafael Furcal hit a solo home run leading off the eighth for Atlanta’s final run.

One out later, the game was delayed for a second time because of rain and was called after a 34-minute delay.

Pittsburgh 8, Florida 5--Tony Perez didn’t do much better than John Boles in his first game as the Marlins’ manager.

Pat Meares hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in a seven-run eighth inning for the Pirates at Pittsburgh in the Marlins’ first game after firing Boles.

The loss went to reliever Dan Miceli (0-5), whose harsh criticism of Boles and his coaching staff hastened the Marlins’ decision to fire the manager.

Arizona 2, San Francisco 1--Mark Grace hit a solo home run to lead off the 12th inning at San Francisco and give the Diamondbacks their fourth consecutive victory.

Grace’s home run against Tim Worrell (1-1) sailed over the right-field wall and into McCovey Cove. It was his eighth homer of the season and extended his hitting streak to 10 games.

Chicago 9, Cincinnati 6--Closer Tom Gordon blew a lead with two out in the ninth inning but Ricky Gutierrez homered in the 13th at Cincinnati to help the Cubs to their eighth consecutive victory.

The Cubs extended their longest winning streak in three years by pulling out a game that featured six first basemen--a National League record--and 40 players in all.

Philadelphia 5, New York 3--Pat Burrell hit a two-run homer in the 10th inning at New York against Armando Benitez.

Mike Piazza had tied the score with a one-out homer in the ninth against Jose Mesa (1-0), but Burrell came back with his third homer in three career at-bats against Benitez (3-2).