Braves Extend Winning Streak

When Ray Lankford put St. Louis ahead with an eighth-inning homer, were the Atlanta Braves worried?

Hardly.

On a night when Mark McGwire's homerless streak stretched into its third week, the Braves rallied for their sixth straight victory by scoring three runs in the eighth to beat the Cardinals 4-2 Monday night.

"They've been doing that for the last seven years," said McGwire, who hasn't homered since April 18.

"I can't remember us coming back this many times all of last season," said John Rocker, who pitched the ninth for his third save. "If the game is tied or we're down by a run or two in the eighth, we're just lounging around in the dugout. It's like we know we'll get the hits and come back."

The Braves did just that against rookie Jose Jimenez and the St. Louis bullpen.

With one out, Chipper Jones walked and Brian Jordan singled to center. Javy Lopez followed with a run-scoring single to knock out Jimenez (2-2).

Pinch-hitter Brian Hunter came through with an RBI double just inside the left-field line against Scott Radinsky, breaking a 2-2 tie. Walt Weiss gave the Braves an insurance run with a sacrifice fly.

"We don't want to get in the habit of coming back all the time," said Tom Glavine, who gave up only one run in 6 1-3 innings but didn't figure in the decision. "We need to go out and get it over with rather than feeling we always have to come back."

Mike Remlinger (2-0) gave up the homer to Lankford on an 0-2 pitch but wound up with the win when the Braves rallied.

"I went from goat to hero pretty quick," Remlinger said. "That's the great thing about being on a team this good. They can turn right arund and score three runs for you."

McGwire put on an impressive show during batting practice, hitting one drive that slammed the out-of-town scoreboard that is perched above the second deck in left field.

In the game, however, McGwire went 0-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts. Big Mac hasn't homered since hitting his fifth of the season at Houston 15 days earlier at Houston. He is on pace for just 34 homers less than half of his record-breaking 70 a year ago and this stretch is already four days more than his longest drought of 1998.

"What happened last year is not going to happen again in my lifetime," McGwire said. "I don't know why everyone expects it to."

McGwire, who has four fewer homers than teammate Fernando Tatis, took a called third strike in the seventh with two runners on and the scored tied 1-1. He made the final out against Rocker, popping up in foul territory.

Rocker, who throws a fastball in the upper 90s, decided to challenge McGwire with no one on base.

"Let him hit a stupid home run if he wants to," Rocker said. "He could hit it as far as he wants and we'd still win by a run."

The Cardinals went ahead in the third on an RBI single by Edgar Renteria, but the Braves tied it in the bottom of the inning when Bret Boone blooped a two-out, run-scoring double that dropped just inside the foul line in right.

Boone has a seven-game hitting streak on the homestand with six RBIs.

Jimenez was rocked by Colorado in his previous start, allowing seven earned runs in just two innings. He gave up seven hits and all four runs in 7 1-3 innings.

Glavine, the 1998 Cy Young winner, is still 1-3 but has come through with two solid games in a row. He allowed seven hits, walked two and struck out six during a 121-pitch performance.

"I thought I pitched pretty well," Glavine said. "The pitch count hurt me a little bit. They hit a lot of foul balls. ... But overall, that was as confident as I've been in a game."

Notes: St. Louis' J.D. Drew left the game after being thrown out trying to go from first to third on Renteria's RBI single in the third. He suffered a strained right quadriceps and was day to day. ... Last summer, with McGwire in pursuit of Roger Maris' home run record, a sold-out, three-game series at Turner Field drew 150,095 fans. The attendance Monday: 37,676. ... Rookie Kevin McGlinchey, who replaced Glavine, struck out Renteria and McGwire to escape the seventh-inning jam. ... The Braves' bullpen had worked only six innings in the previous five victories. ... The Cardinals lost for only the second time in 13 games when scoring first.

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