BY R.B. FALLSTROM
AP Sports Writer
![[mcgwire]](/editions/1998/09/24/mcgwire_100x204.jpg)
Mark McGwire reacts after missing a Randy Johnson pitch.
(AP photo)
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ST. LOUIS -- The home run derby is tied again after Mark McGwire failed to answer Sammy Sosa's two-homer salvo.
Facing Randy Johnson, the NL's dominant pitcher since he arrived in Houston last month, the St. Louis Cardinals' slugger drew two walks, singled and hit his third warning-track fly ball in two nights in a 7-1 loss Wednesday night. He also flied out to deep center in the ninth off Billy Wagner.
"I'm happy with my day," McGwire said to a pool reporter. "I had five good at-bats. It just goes to show you the hardest thing to do in sports is hit a home run."
McGwire and Sosa have homered on the same day 20 times. Not this day, as the NL Central champion Astros won for the 100th time and the home run kings headed into the home stretch tied for the major-league record with 65 apiece. McGwire has four games left at home against the Montreal Expos and Sosa has three games to go on the road against Houston.
![[sosa]](/editions/1998/09/24/sosawave_200x147.jpg)
Sammy Sosa acknowledges cheers after his 65th homer.
(AP photo)
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"I'm happy for him," McGwire said of Sosa. "There's nothing to be upset about."
Johnson (10-1) scattered eight hits in seven spotty innings to end the Cardinals' six-game winning streak. He handled McGwire with a heavy dose of off-speed pitches and by rarely challenging him, but said after the game he was just off his game.
"I wish I would have pitched him better," said Johnson, who has one more win than he had with Seattle before Houston acquired him at the July 31 trade deadline. "I wish I hadn't walked him. They don't give you a lot of slack here when you throw a ball."
McGwire walked on five pitches in the first, then extended his NL record to 159 walks on a full count in the third. He singled through short on a 1-2 pitch leading off the fifth, then hit a towering fly ball to the warning track leading off the seventh. He flied out to center field off Wagner in the ninth.
"I didn't see a ball in the middle of the plate to drive all night," McGwire said.
Sosa, breaking an 0-for-21 slump, hit solo shots in the fifth and sixth innings of the Cubs' 8-7 loss to the Milwaukee Breweres. It was his 11th multihomer game this season, tying the major league record set by Detroit's Hank Greenberg in 1938.
The Cubs blew a 7-0 lead and lost when Brant Brown dropped a fly ball that would have been the game's final out, allowing three runs to score.
"Everybody knows what happens to me is great," Sosa said. "But at the other side, I care about winning, I care about the team and our situation right now."
Despite the loss, the Cubs remained tied with the New York Mets for atop the NL wild card race after the Mets lost to the Montreal Expos 3-0. But the San Francisco Giants moved to only 1 1/2 games back after defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1.
Sosa had been hitless since his grand slam last week in San Diego that gave him No. 63. But he's hit more homers off Milwaukee than any other team, and Brewers manager Phil Garner knew it was just a matter of time before he broke out of his slump.
After walking in his first two at-bats, Sosa sent Rafael Roque's 1-0 pitch over the right-field wall in the fifth, putting the Cubs ahead 4-0. Fans, who rose to their feet each time Sosa stepped to the plate, let out a huge roar when they realized the ball was going over the wall. Sosa did his trademark home run hop, then trotted around the bases while the crowd chanted: "Sam-mee! Sam-mee!"
In the sixth inning, he put Rod Henderson's 2-2 pitch over the center-field wall. The two homers gave Sosa 156 RBI, fourth-best in NL history.
Home run race coverage from Associated Press
![[mcgwire]](/editions/1998/09/24/mcgwire_270x550.jpg)
![[sosa]](/editions/1998/09/24/sosawave_550x403.jpg)