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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Even when they fell behind early, Jim Edmonds
and the St. Louis Cardinals figured everything would turn out OK.
"You keep winning and you keep winning and that's what it's all
about," said Edmonds, who doubled twice and drove in two runs
Saturday during a 10-9 win over the Houston Astros.
|  | | Mark McGwire celebrates his major league-leading 30th home run in the first inning Saturday against the Astros. Big Mac has hit 30 dingers by the All-Star break a record four times. |
Despite allowing 15 hits, four of them homers, and committing
three errors, the Cardinals managed to find a way to win Saturday.
Mark McGwire hit his major league-leading 30th home run and
Fernando Tatis homered for the first time since coming off the
disabled list to power St. Louis. The Cardinals spotted the Astros
a 7-3 lead after three innings before coming back to win.
"When you're down by four in the fourth, you got to give
yourself a chance," Edmonds said. " A run here or a run there and
you're back in the game. That's the way we try to play."
The Cardinals have won nine of 12 and lead Cincinnati by 9{
games in the NL Central.
"We gutted this one out," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa
said.
For the Astros, it was a familiar story line.
"It gets to the point where you're not surprised," said
Houston manager Larry Dierker. "When you get nine runs and 15
hits, most of the time you're going to win."
McGwire hit the first pitch he saw from Octavio Dotel for a
three-run shot in the first inning. He reached the 30-homer mark
for the 11th time in his career.
Big Mac became the first player ever to have 30 homers at the
All-Star break four times. Cincinnati's Ken Griffey Jr., who has 26
home runs this year, has done it three times.
McGwire has homered in five straight games at Busch Stadium.
Despite playing in only 66 of the team's 80 games, McGwire is on
pace for 61 home runs. He has 552 career home runs.
Tatis, who missed 54 games with a groin injury before returning
to the lineup Friday night, hit a three-run homer in the sixth off
Doug Henry. The home run, Tatis' seventh and first since April 26,
gave the Cardinals a 10-7 lead.
Jeff Bagwell homered twice for Houston. Moises Alou and Richard
Hidalgo also homered for Houston.
Craig Paquette homered and J.D. Drew had three hits for the
Cardinals before a sellout crowd of 47,675. It was the fifth
straight sellout for St. Louis.
Houston has lost 10 of its last 12.
Mark Thompson (1-1) pitched 2 1-3 innings of relief to get the
win, allowing one unearned run on one hit.
Dave Veres pitched the ninth for his 16th save, giving up a solo
home run to Bagwell. Bagwell's first multihomer game of the season
gave him 20 home runs this season.
"Even at the end, we had chances," Dierker said. "Whatever it
takes to lose by one run."
La Russa said that Veres, who had pitched two innings on Friday,
was just trying to survive.
"He was on fumes there at the end," he said. "That's why it
would have been nice to add an extra (run) or two in the eighth."
Joe Slusarski (1-5) gave up two runs on two hits in two innings
of relief.
After McGwire gave the Cardinals a 3-2 lead with his home run,
Houston took it right back in the second on a two-run single by
Craig Biggio and an RBI single by Mitch Meluskey.
Alou and Hidalgo hit consecutive home runs with one out in the
third to make it 7-3.
The Cardinals began their comeback in the fourth by scoring
three times on Paquette's homer, an RBI single by Drew and Edmonds'
RBI double.
Edmonds tied it at 7 in the sixth with a double over Hidalgo's
head in center. Houston made it 10-8 on an RBI double by Hidalgo in the
seventh.
Game notes
Bagwell's first-inning homer broke a four-game, homerless
streak for the Astros. ... The Cardinals have homered in 65 of
their 80 games and have multiple homers in 43 of those games. ...
Houston (27-53) will reach the halfway mark Sunday with the worst
record in the majors. The Astros were 46-34 after 80 games last
year. ... The Astros have hit back-to-back home runs five times and
Hidalgo has been involved all five times. ... Cardinals catcher Eli
Marrero left the game with a left thumb injury he suffered while
stealing second base in the fourth.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Houston Clubhouse
St. Louis Clubhouse
RECAPS
Chi. White Sox 7
Boston 2
NY Yankees 6
Tampa Bay 1
Baltimore 12
Toronto 5
Minnesota 4
Cleveland 3
Detroit 8
Kansas City 7
Seattle 6
Texas 3
Anaheim 7
Oakland 2
NY Mets 9
Atlanta 1
Arizona 9
Cincinnati 6
San Francisco 4
Los Angeles 1
St. Louis 10
Houston 9
Florida 6
Montreal 5
Philadelphia 4
Pittsburgh 3
Milwaukee 4
Chicago Cubs 0
San Diego 5
Colorado 3
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