Holding at 65
Johnson holds Mac homerless in Astros' 7-1 win
Posted: Thursday September 24, 1998 01:05 AM
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Dandy Randy: Johnson is 7-0 with a 1.16 ERA in his last seven starts AP |
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The home run derby is tied again after Mark McGwire
failed to answer Sammy Sosa's
two-homer salvo.
Facing Randy
Johnson, the NL's dominant pitcher since he arrived in Houston last
month, the St. Louis
Cardinals' slugger drew two walks, singled and hit his third
warning-track fly ball in two nights in a 7-1 loss Wednesday night. He also
flied out to deep center in the ninth off Billy Wagner.
"I'm happy with my day," McGwire said to a pool reporter. "I had five
good at-bats. It just goes to show you the hardest thing to do in sports is
hit a home run."
He was impressed with Johnson, who also held him in the ballpark on
September 12.
"He's become a pitcher, not just a thrower. He used to throw it 98 mph
and now he turns it over and throws it 92 mph with better location,"
McGwire said.
McGwire and Sosa have homered on the same day 20 times. Not this day, as
the NL Central champion Astros won for the 100th time and the home run
kings headed into the home stretch tied for the major-league record with 65
apiece. McGwire has four games left at home against the Montreal Expos and Sosa
has three games to go on the road against Houston.
"I'm happy for him," McGwire said of Sosa. "There's nothing to be upset
about."
McGwire is 7-for-29 in his career against Johnson with two homers,
including a 538-foot blast in 1997. In two meetings this month, he's
1-for-4 with three walks, and with Johnson pitching him carefully for the
most part, there were no fireworks in this clash of the titans.
Johnson (10-1) scattered eight hits in seven spotty innings to end the
Cardinals' six-game winning streak. He handled McGwire with a heavy dose of
off-speed pitches and by rarely challenging him, but said after the game he
was just off his game.
"I wish I would have pitched him better," said Johnson, who has one more
win than he had with Seattle before Houston acquired him at the July 31
trade deadline. "I wish I hadn't walked him. They don't give you a lot of
slack here when you throw a ball."
McGwire walked on five pitches in the first, then extended his NL record
to 159 walks on a full count in the third. He singled through short on a
1-2 pitch leading off the fifth, then hit a towering fly ball to the
warning track leading off the seventh. He flied out to center field off
Wagner in the ninth.
Silent night: McGwire's 1-for-4 with three walks against Johnson this month, including 1-for-3 with two walks on Wednesday AP | |
"I didn't see a ball in the middle of the plate to drive all night,"
McGwire said.
McGwire hit two warning-track fly balls off Mike Hampton on
Tuesday night.
Johnson beat the Cardinals 3-2 in Houston on Sept. 12 despite suffering
from flu symptons. This time around, he didn't have his best stuff even
though he was healthy. In his final tuneup for the playoffs, Johnson threw
136 pitches, striking out eight and walking six, and he gave up a homer on
the first pitch to the first batter he faced, light-hitting Pat Kelly.
"In one way you could say he was tenacious," manager Larry Dierker said.
"In another way you could say he was lucky. He just really didn't have very
good control and at the beginning he didn't even have good stuff, for him."
The Cardinals stranded 10 runners the first five innings. They left two
on in the first when Brian Jordan
over-ran second on Eli Marrero's two-out single after McGwire had been
stopped at third. They left the bases loaded in the third and fifth.
With the win, Houston clinched home-field advantage in the first round
of the playoffs. San Diego can also finish with 100 wins, but the Astros
hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series from the Padres.
Richard Hidalgo had three hits and two RBIs for the Astros, who knocked
out Cardinals starter Darren Oliver
(4-4) by taking a 6-1 lead in the third. Moises Alou also
had three hits and an RBI.
Craig
Biggio became only the second player this century to have 50 steals and
50 doubles in a season, joining Hall of Famer Tris Speaker. The Astros'
leadoff man has 51 doubles, 50 steals, 20 homers and 87 RBIs. Speaker had
53 doubles and 52 steals for Boston in 1912.
Astros right fielder Derek Bell
removed himself from the game with a strained neck after just missing a
diving catch in the third, and was day-to-day. Bell ran to the line and
snared Jordan's blooper, but the ball popped out for a single as he crashed
into the turf with a whiplash effect to his neck.
He tried to collect himself the next few at-bats, kneeling at times, but
raised his hand to the bench after the next three hitters.
Notes: Johnson is 7-0 with a 1.16 ERA in his last seven starts. He
has 329 strikeouts on the year. ... A sellout crowd of 38,997 put the
Cardinals over 3 million in attendance for the third time in franchise
history and first time since 1989. ... Cardinals right fielder Brian Jordan
was back in the lineup a day after leaving with a slightly strained right
elbow strain. He said he hurt it making a throw. Jordan, a close friend of
Bobby Kersee and Jackie Joyner-Kersee, plans to attend the funeral of
Florence Griffith Joyner Saturday in Los Angeles. ... Alou set a team
record with 336 total bases, one more than Bagwell had last year.
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