McGwire, Cards Drop Dodgers In 12th

Two games, two big homers.

Maybe Mark McGwire really will threaten Roger Maris' home-run record this year.

McGwire, who hit a grand slam on opening day, connected for a three-run homer in the 12th inning Thursday to give the St. Louis Cardinals an 8-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"You know anything is possible," manager Tony La Russa said. "Is that amazing? You don't ever take him for granted."

A year after hitting 58 homers -- the most since Maris' record 61 in 1961 -- McGwire is 4-for-8 in his first two games with seven RBIs and three walks. In his first 53 games with the Cardinals, he has 26 home runs.

Not that he's getting carried away over his start.

"I don't look at it that way," McGwire said. "It's just one game at a time, there's a long ways to go. When this day's over with, I've got to prepare for tomorrow."

Surprisingly, Dodgers manager Bill Russell wasn't that impressed.

"He's pitchable," Russell said. "We struck him out a couple of times. When you keep the ball down, you can get him. But when you pitch him high, he kills you."

With the game tied 5-5 career .042 batter Juan Acevedo (1-0) beat out an infield hit against Frank Lankford (0-1) with one out in the 12th and took second on a wild throw by second baseman Eric Young, his third error of the game.

Royce Clayton was hit in the forearm with a pitch and McGwire homered to left on an 0-1 pitch with two outs, ending a 4-hour, 6-minute game in which each team used 21 players -- including all position players.

On opening day, McGwire struck out in the seventh inning on a Lankford curve. He was looking for the same pitch, and got it.

"I don't think I'll throw that pitch to him again," Lankford said. "I know I can get him out. It's just that you can't throw that type of pitch to him."

St Louis runners were thrown out at the plate in the eighth and ninth innings. The Cardinals took a 5-3 lead into the ninth but Thomas Howard hit a two-run homer off rookie Braden Looper with two outs. Dodgers right fielder Matt Luke threw out Ron Gant at the plate trying to score on Tom Lampkin's single in the bottom half.

Cliff Politte, a 54th-round draft pick in 1995, started for the Cardinals and made his major league debut in his hometown. He allowed one run and two hits in five innings.

Politte's alma mater, Vianney High School, closed down for the day and 800 students and faculty cheered him on from three sections in the upper deck.

"It was hard to iss them," Politte said. "They were pretty loud up there. It was pretty neat."

Dodgers starter Chan Ho Park struggled, allowing two runs and six hits in 4 2-3 innings, throwing 102 pitches. Mark Guthrie got him out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, retiring Lampkin on a inning-ending pop fly.

"It wasn't a typical Chan Ho performance," Russell said."He just couldn't get his breaking ball over."

Ray Lankford's RBI double in the first and Gant's second-inning homer off the screen connected to the left-field foul pole put St. Louis ahead 2-0.

Trenidad Hubbard homered in the fifth off Politte. Todd Zeile's two-run homer in the sixth off Kent Bottenfield put the Dodgers ahead 3-2.

Young's double error on Lampkin's grounder led to the tying run in the eighth, and Delino DeShields followed with a two-run single.

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