Speedy McGwire Gets 41st Homer

Mark McGwire was more excited about his first triple in 11 seasons than home run No. 498.

“They said it’ll never be done again and I did it. I will think about retirement after this season,” McGwire joked after hitting a pair of high notes in the Cardinals’ 6-5 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday night at St. Louis. “I don’t clog up the bases, I’ll tell you that.”

McGwire tied Sammy Sosa for the major league lead with his 41st homer, and his 14th in 18 games, off Woody Williams with two on in the fifth inning.

McGwire, who has seven RBIs the last two games, had his first triple since June 20, 1988, off Trevor Hoffman in the bottom of the eighth. His sixth career triple came when Tony Gwynn robbed him of a homer with a leaping effort at the right-field wall, but couldn’t hold onto the ball.

McGwire had four triples his rookie year in 1987 and one in 1988, but had gone 4,618 at-bats since then. It’s the longest such streak in major league history.

Gwynn went one for five and now needs five hits to reach 3,000.

Arizona 16, San Francisco 6--Bernard Gilkey homered and Luis Gonzalez tripled in a seven-run third inning as the Diamondbacks won the first game of a series between the NL West’s top two teams at Phoenix.

Jay Bell added an RBI double in the third-inning uprising against the Giants’ Kirk Rueter (9-6).

Travis Lee ended an 0-for-30 slump with a two-run single as Arizona scored seven more runs in the eighth.

Arizona starter Armando Reynoso (7-1) gave up two runs in the first, including Marvin Benard’s leadoff homer and a solo home run to J.T. Snow in the sixth.

New York 7, Milwaukee 2--Rick Reed won his seventh straight decision and Mike Piazza hit one of three New York homers at Milwaukee.

The Mets, 10-1 in Reed’s last 11 starts, moved into a first-place tie with Atlanta in the NL East.

Reed (10-3) gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings. He struck out four and walked two for the Mets, who are 14-4 since the All-Star break.

Montreal 5, Chicago 1--Dustin Hermanson won for the first time in almost three months and Orlando Cabrera hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the fifth inning at Chicago.

Sammy Sosa hit his 41st home run in the first inning for Chicago’s lone run. Mark Grace later got his 2,000th hit for the Cubs.