McGwire’s 43rd Ties Cardinals’ Season Record

Mark McGwire hit his major league-leading 43rd home run, tying the Cardinals’ record for homers in a season, and Ray Lankford hit a grand slam as St. Louis beat the San Diego Padres, 13-1, Monday night at San Diego.

McGwire went four for four, tying his career-high for hits, and extended his record for most homers by the end of July with a two-run shot into the second deck estimated at 458 feet. His 43 homers match the team record set by Johnny Mize in 1940.

Greg Vaughn of the Padres also homered into the second deck, a 433-shot in the second inning. It was Vaughn’s 35th homer and fifth in four games.

Only 19 homers had been hit into the second deck in 30 seasons at Qualcomm Stadium--formerly Jack Murphy Stadium.

Lankford hit his fourth career grand slam and 16th homer of the season in a five-run ninth that gave the Cardinals their most lopsided victory and the Padres their worst loss of the year. The Padres had their winning streak end at five games.

Philadelphia 3, Montreal 1--Curt Schilling pitched a five-hitter at Montreal for his major league-leading 10th complete game.

“A good sign is that, even though I only struck out nine, I kept my pitch count down because I was pitching in,” said Schilling (10-9), who also singled home Philadelphia’s first run against Carlos Perez (7-10) in the fifth.

Schilling, who walked only one, increased his strikeout total to 198, tops in the majors. (Seattle’s Randy Johnson leads the American League with 196.)

The Phillies have won 10 of their last 14, while the Expos have lost four in a row.

Milwaukee 5, Florida 3--After spending the day at a hearing concerning allegations that he physically abused his former girlfriend, Marlin pitcher Livan Hernandez raced to the stadium in Miami and gave up four runs in the first inning to the Brewers.

“I don’t want to say that’s a reason for anything that happened,” Hernandez said.

The Brewers have won all eight games against the Marlins this season and try to complete a season sweep today.

Chicago 11, Atlanta 4--Cub pitcher Kevin Tapani hit a grand slam--his first career home run--and picked up the win at Atlanta.

Tapani, a 34-year-old right-hander who had only 17 career hits, homered to left against Denny Neagle with two out in the third inning to give the Cubs a 5-0 lead.

It was the first grand slam by a Cub pitcher since 1972, when Burt Hooton hit one against the New York Mets, and the first by a major league pitcher since 1996, when St. Louis’ Donovan Osborne hit one against San Diego.

Pittsburgh 3, New York 1--Francisco Cordova and Ricardo Rincon combined on a five-hitter and Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run homer for the Pirates at New York.

The Pirates, who have won four in a row, defeated the Mets at Shea Stadium for just the third time in the last 15 games.

Cordova (8-8) won his second consecutive game and is 2-5 in his last seven decisions.

Rincon, who combined with Cordova to no-hit Houston last season, pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings for his 11th save.

San Francisco 5, Arizona 3--J.T. Snow hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning at San Francisco to help the Giants end a four-game losing streak.