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HOUSTON (Ticker) -- With Barry Bonds on the verge of home run history, Mark McGwire provided fans with a flashback. McGwire inched closer to fourth place all-time with two home runs and Darryl Kile combined with two relievers on a five-hitter as the St. Louis Cardinals took the rubber game of a three-game series with the Houston Astros, 5-1. McGwire was mired in a 1-for-19 slump and ended a 13 at-bat hitless drought by crushing Ron Villone's offering over the wall in left-center field and out of Enron Field for his 26th homer. Villone has been a favorite target of McGwire, who is 5-for-15 with five home runs against him. "It was over the plate and a nice, fat fastball," Villone said. "It was probably a pitch he would like to see again." McGwire added a solo shot off Octavio Dotel in the eighth for his third multi-homer game of the season and 67th of his career. "It was a fastball," Dotel said. "I wanted to go right at him and challenge him, but it was inside and down and he killed that ball. I missed it and he got it." Bonds has 67 home runs and is three away from McGwire's single-season record. But McGwire is the active leader with 581 homers, five shy of Hall of Famer Frank Robinson for fourth place on the all-time list. "I admire him," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "His first two at-bats, he struck out and instead of saying, 'It's not my day,' he hung in there and really helped us. He was looking for a hole to hide in after the second punchout, but he was the difference tonight." "I'm just trying to do what I can with what I have," McGwire said. "I just want to get base hits and the balls are happening to go out of the ballpark. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. It's been a weird year." Kile (15-10), who allowed four singles and two walks in seven innings, struck out 10 -- one shy of a career high. He won for just the second time in six career starts against his former team. "To beat a guy like Kile, you've got to scratch out a few base hits," Astros manager Larry Dierker said. "We couldn't manage that tonight. He had good control and was really tough. It's hard to win games like these because you've got to pitch that well yourself." "We won and that's all that matters," Kile said. "We're fighting for a playoff spot right now. We've got to win these games any way we can. I was just trying to throw pitches. When I did make a mistake, I was lucky that they fouled them back." Villone (6-8) gave up three runs and four hits in five innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. Houston had its lead over the Cardinals in the National League Central sliced to 3 1/2 games while St. Louis remained three games in front of San Francisco in the wild card chase. The Cardinals loaded the bases in the first inning, but Villone got Craig Paquette to fly out to end the threat. Paquette redeemed himself in the fourth, following Jim Edmonds' double with a run-scoring single to left. Houston put the first two runners on in the fourth, but Kile struck out Lance Berkman and Richard Hidalgo before getting Orlando Merced to fly out. Miguel Cairo singled with one out in the fifth but was erased on a forceout by Placido Polanco. McGwire then crushed his home run for a 3-0 lead. Kile struck out Julio Lugo with two aboard to end the fifth and worked around a leadoff single in the sixth. J.D. Drew's sacrifice fly in the seventh pushed the lead to 4-0 before Dotel surrendered McGwire's homer in the eighth. It was just the second homer Dotel has allowed in 79 2/3 innings in relief this season. "Reggie Jackson, who's a good friend of mine, told me once that a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while," McGwire said. "I found a couple of acorns today. It feels good to contribute tonight, but we've got nine more games." Houston avoided the shutout in the ninth, when Jeff Bagwell led off with his 38th homer. The Astros lost a series for the first time since August 13-15. "There's a reason the Cardinals are where they are -- they're a good team," Bagwell said. "They just outplayed us the last two games. You can't worry about games like these when they're on and we're off."
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