JERSEY CITY, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Mark McGwire is still The Man.

The St. Louis Cardinals' slugger edged Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs in the home run chase for the second straight season, becoming the first National Leaguer to win in back-to-back years since Dale Murphy of Atlanta in 1984 and 1985.

The Cardinals won a rain-shortened 9-5 decision from the Cubs at Busch Stadium today as McGwire hit his 65th in the first inning and Sosa belted his 63rd two innings later. It marked the fifth time they homered in the same game.

"I'm very surprised. My goal is 50 and it will always be 50," McGwire said. "Hitting 65 still blows me away. What I did last year still blows me away."

Their chase, however, clearly lacked the drama and attention of their epic chase a year ago, when each broke the single-season record of 61 set by Roger Maris in 1961. McGwire finished with an astonishing 70 in 1998, four more than Sosa.

Sosa always referred to McGwire as "The Man" during the chase and was satisfied with his effort today.

I'm not disappointed, I'm a happy man. I had a great year," said Sosa, who became the first player to hit 60 more than once, beating McGwire to the plateau. "I hope every year I have a year like this. Maybe we both can continue to do this next year."

McGwire's blast off Steve Trachsel was the 522nd of his career, moving him past Hall of Famers Ted Williams and Willie McCovey for 10th all-time.

The same players had not placed 1-2 in home runs in consecutive seasons since Philadelphia's Mike Schmidt and Murphy in 1983-84. McGwire and Sosa were the first players to hit 60 homers in two different seasons.

The NL RBI crown also went to McGwire, whose 147 were six more than Sosa.

Ken Griffey Jr. of the Seattle Mariners won his third straight AL home run crown, but fell short of 50 for the first time in three seasons.

Griffey finished with 48, one more than Rafael Palmeiro of the Texas Rangers and two short of 400 in his career. It is the lowest total for an AL homer champ since Griffey claimed the first of his four crowns with 40 in the abbreviated 1994 campaign.

Griffey is the first player to win three straight titles since Schmidt from 1974-76. The last American Leaguer to do it was Harmon Killebrew for the Minnesota Twins from 1962-64.

The most dominant individual performance this season was by Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox, who captured pitching's "Triple Crown."

A virtual lock for his second Cy Young Award, Martinez (23-4) led the American League in wins, ERA (2.07) and strikeouts (311).

Martinez's ERA was more than a run better than his nearest AL competitor, David Cone of the New York Yankees. His strikeout total was the most in the league since Nolan Ryan fanned 341 for the California Angels in 1977.

It was the third straight year that there was a pitching Triple Crown in the AL. Roger Clemens did it for the Toronto Blue Jays the last two seasons.

Ryan set a major league mark with 383 strikeouts for California in 1973. Randy Johnson of the Arizona Diamondbacks had a chance to reach the mark before settling for the NL title with a career-best 364. Johnson led the majors in strikeouts for the sixth time in his career.

Johnson (17-9) won his second career ERA title (2.48) after accomplishing the feat for Seattle in 1995. But he lost out on a chance at the Triple Crown due a five-game losing streak at midseason in which the Diamondbacks failed to score in four of those starts.

"It's been a real nice year for me. Overall I was pretty pleased with my season," Johnson said. "I don't try for strikeouts. I know I've accummulated a lot."

Mike Hampton won his 22nd game today as the Houston Astros clinched the NL Central title and was joined by Martinez and teammate Jose Lima (21-10) as baseball's only 20-game winners.

One of the biggest offensive achievements came from Manny Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians, who finished with 165 RBI, the highest total in the major leagues since Lou Gehrig had the same number in 1934.

It was the fourth time since 1993 that an Indian topped the list. Albert Belle did it three times for the Tribe.

The batting titles in both leagues were won by players who sat out the final few games of the season due to injury.

Nomar Garciaparra sat out the final five games with an injured right wrist and won the American League title at .357, finishing eight points ahead of New York's Derek Jeter. The crown is the first by a Boston player since Wade Boggs won each year from 1985-88.

Bernie Williams of the Yankees, last year's champion, was third at .342.

Larry Walker of the Colorado Rockies, who had season-ending knee surgery on Wednesday, won his second straight batting crown with a .379 average, 44 points better than Bobby Abreu of Philadelphia.

"It's a good thing, I guess," he said. "In the same breath, it's a bad thing. If you win a batting title and keep playing, it's a great thing. But if you win a batting title and go home, it doesn't mean as much."

The Rockies finished last in the NL West.

Ugueth Urbina of the Montreal Expos led the NL with 41 saves despite blowing his ninth opportunity today.

It was Urbina's ninth blown save in 50 chances but he still had one more save than Trevor Hoffman of San Diego. Mariano Rivera of the Yankees led the AL with 45.

Arizona's Tony Womack paced the NL in stolen bases for the third straight year with 72. He did it the last two seasons with Pittsburgh.

It marked the sixth straight year that a second baseman captured the title. Eric Young of Colorado, Quilvio Veras of San Diego and Craig Biggio of Houston also won in that span.

Rickey Henderson, who stole 66 last season to win the AL title for Oakland, settled for 37 in his first year with the New York Mets and could add to that total if the Mets are involved in a one-game playoff.

With Henderson in another league, Brian Hunter of Seattle topped the AL with 44.