McGwire Ties Sosa, Cards Lose

Mark McGwire's 495th career home run came in another losing cause.

McGwire answered Sammy Sosa with No. 38 to tie for the major league lead Friday night, but Terry Shumpert's two-run homer in the eighth inning gave the Colorado Rockies a 5-4 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals are 13-21 when McGwire homers. He said it was frustrating.

"Sure," McGwire said. "I don't know what else to say."

"He one-handed it, so he was out in front a little bit," said Veres, who gave up a sacrifice fly to J.D. Drew before finishing for his 20th save in 25 chances. "Anybody else, that might be a low liner to Vinny. With McGwire, it's a bullet that takes his glove off."

McGwire got a chance to hit after Joe McEwing struck out, but reached on a wild pitch.

"It was kind of justice, really," Rockies manager Jim Leyland said. "It's kind of neat the way it worked out because it couldn't have been a better stage for their fans and it really couldn't have been a better ending for us."

The count was 1-2 when McGwire lined out on a split-finger fastball.

"I could have hit it better, but you're behind in the count and Veres is having a great year. I lined out to Vinny. Right turn, dugout, game over."

Sosa hit his 38th earlier in the day, connecting off Masato Yoshii of the New York Mets.

McGwire set a record for most homers in a five-year span when he connected against Pedro Astacio (11-9) leading off the sixth inning. He has 11 home runs in the last 15 games.

McGwire has 257 homers since 1995, breaking the five-year record he had shared with Babe Ruth, who hit 256 from 1926-30. McGwire is one away from tying his own record for most homers (219 from 1995-98) in four consecutive seasons.

"Obviously, it's an honor to be mentioned with him and to surpass him," McGwire said. "But they have stats for everything these days."

Alberto Castillo homered in the seventh for the Cardinals to tie it before Shumpert tagged Manny Aybar (4-4) for his sixth homer and trumped McGwire.

"His ball went a lot farther than mine," Shumpert said. "But it was good to upstage him because we won the game."

Astacio, among league leaders in homers allowed with 26, allowed three runs on five hits in seven innings.

Angel Echevarria, a last-minute addition to the Rockies' lineup after Larry Walker was late returning from a funeral in British Columbia, had a two-run homer in the third. Castilla added an RBI double in the second.

Walker, who showed up in the second inning, pinch-hit in the seventh with two outs and runners on first and second. Rick Croushore struck him out.

Cardinals starter Kent Mercker allowed three runs on seven hits in 6 2-3 innings.

"I haven't gotten away with many mistakes this year, and today was another day that I didn't get away with it," Mercker said. "I made one bad pitch."

A sellout crowd of 46,208 put the Cardinals above 2 million in attendance in the 49th game.

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