|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Move over Reggie McGwire ties Jackson on HR list; Cards lose to Tigers
Updated: Friday July 13, 2001 2:48 AM
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Mark McGwire took no joy in tying Reggie Jackson for sixth on the career home run list. "That's not important to me," McGwire 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." McGwire hit No. 563 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 2-for-40 slump since June 24. McGwire went 1-for-2 with two walks to raise his batting average to .189. 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 just two runs and three hits in six-plus innings, knocking the Cardinals, the defending NL Central champions, a game below .500.
"We shouldn't be this bad," McGwire said. "We all should look at each other and look at ourselves in the mirror and see how bad we really want it." Matt Anderson entered with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth. He allowed a two-run single to pinch-hitter Bobby Bonilla and Kerry Robinson's sacrifice fly before finishing for his ninth save in 10 chances as Bobby Higginson made a running catch at the wall in left-center on a drive by pinch hitter Albert Pujols. Manager Phil Garner joked that he hadn't been worried. "Nah, I knew Higgy was going to catch it," Garner said. "He'd have jumped up to the second or third row if he had to." Clark, the Tigers' lone All-Star representative, hit his 14th homer off Jason Christiansen in the seventh for a 7-0 lead. He also walked twice and scored and is 15-for-40 (.400) the last 11 games. Higginson was 4-for-5 with an RBI for Detroit, which ended an eight-game road losing streak and won for only the third time in 18 games away from Comerica Park. The Cardinals, who were 51-36 at the break last year, fell to 43-44 and nine games behind the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. St. Louis has lost nine of 12.
"It seems like right now it's one thing after another," Christiansen said. "The hitting, the pitching or the defense, one thing is always hurting is right now." After allowing a leadoff triple to Fernando Vina in the first, Weaver got out of it when Vina was easily thrown out trying to score on Jim Edmonds' grounder. Then, Weaver picked off Edmonds. Weaver retired 10 in a row before walking Edgar Renteria with one out in the fifth, then set down another five straight before walking Edmonds to start the seventh. The right-hander struck out two and walked three. "I felt I could have gone longer," Weaver said. "It was just unfortunate I couldn't go a little bit longer, but anytime you come to St. Louis and take the first game you feel pretty confident." Darryl Kile (9-7) walked four, matching his season high, in six innings. He allowed four runs, three earned, and eight hits in losing for the first time since June 12 at Kansas City. St. Louis has scored 13 runs in Kile's seven losses. Juan Encarnacion had a run-scoring groundout, and Jose Macias hit an RBI single to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the second. Detroit scored two more in the fifth on Higginson's RBI single and left fielder Ray Lankford's fielding error.
Notes: Lankford has five errors, matching his season total from last year. ... Cardinals C Mike Matheny is 19-for-33 throwing out basestealers. ... Encarnacion, the Tigers' No. 7 hitter, has 12 RBIs in the last 18 games. ... Cardinals rookie All-Star Albert Pujols, who's in a 2-for-36 slump, did not start.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
