Mac held to 2 singles in Cards' 7-3 win
Posted: Tuesday September 15, 1998 01:00 AM
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McGwire, who went 2-for-4 with a strikeout on the night, has more strikeouts (144) than hits (136) AP |
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Coming home couldn't bring back Mark McGwire's
home-run swing.
A day after leaving a game in Houston early because of minor back
spasms, the St. Louis
Cardinals' slugger was back in the lineup for the first game at Busch
Stadium since he hit No. 62 on Sept. 8.
There was no pandemonium this time as McGwire, looking not at all like a
home run king, had a quiet 2-for-4 game in a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates
Monday night.
He made at least one person happy his manager.
"You know how hard it is to get a base hit?" Tony La Russa said. "He got
two hits. You guys are spoiled, I think, when you go 2-for-4 and that's not
good enough."
McGwire had a two-run single in a four-run second inning off Jason Schmidt
(11-12). Schmidt said the ball was right over the plate.
"I'm lucky he hit it on the ground and not in the air," Schmidt said,
then reconsidered. "I don't know if that was lucky -- it was two runs."
Still, McGwire has just three singles in 18 at-bats in six games since
hitting homer No. 62, and has been caught by Sammy Sosa.
Against Schmidt, McGwire also struck out in the first on a checked swing
and grounded out to first on a checked swing in the fourth. In the sixth,
he had a rare single to right off Todd Van
Poppel on another awkward, incomplete swing.
As a precaution, La Russa said he won't use McGwire in both games of
Tuesday night's doubleheader against the Pirates, but wasn't sure which
game McGwire would be rested. John Mabry likely
will play first base in the other game.
"If you've got kind of an ouchy back, playing 18 innings in one day, I'm
not sure it's good on a regular back," La Russa said. "So, he'll play one
of the two."
McGwire canceled his scheduled pregame news conference, and also turned
down interview requests after the game. Before the game, La Russa and
teammates said his quick recovery had nothing to do with Sosa's presence
alongside him in the record book.
"I'm sure he wouldn't be in there if he wasn't fine," catcher Tom Lampkin
said. "I don't think he's in there just because of the home run record."
In batting practice, McGwire appeared to be his old self with eight
homers in 16 swings. Two of them reached the upper deck and a third banged
off a window in the Stadium Club just below the top deck.
La Russa took that as proof that everything was fine.
"He hit 10 balls out of the park in BP and about five in the upper
deck," the manager said, exaggerating just a bit. "How do you do that
without swinging?
"How do you get two hits without getting a decent cut?"
McGwire probably was happy just to be playing. The last time McGwire had
back spasms, on June 1 in San Diego, he missed three games.
Jose Jimenez (1-0), making his first career start, held the Pirates to
four hits and one run in seven innings. He walked five, including Abraham
Nunez three times, and struck out three.
Delino
DeShields was 2-for-4 with a two-run double in a four-run second that
put the Cardinals ahead 5-1, and two steals. In the fifth, J.D. Drew had a
sacrifice fly and Jimenez, who struck out trying to bunt in the second and
finally made contact on a sacrifice in the third, drove in a run with a
groundout for a 7-1 lead.
Tim Laker
homered in the Pittsburgh ninth.
Schmidt, who has lost three straight decisions, lasted five innings and
allowed 10 hits and seven runs.
"His big problem was that his slider wasn't consistent," manager Gene
Lamont said. "He couldn't get in a groove."
Countered Schmidt: "He always says that."
Notes: The Cardinals have won 11 of 15 and Pittsburgh has lost 14
of 17. ... Pirates starters have only one victory in the last 18 games. ...
McGwire has more strikeouts (144) than hits (136). ... Cardinals media
relations director Brian Bartow missed the game because his wife, Laura,
was giving birth to a boy, the couple's second child. ... Pittsburgh's Kevin Young, in
a 2-for-34 slump, got the night off.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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