NL ROUNDUP : McGwire Homers Twice to Take Lead

Mark McGwire is back on top in the home run derby for the first time in more than a month, just in time for a final weekend showdown with Sammy Sosa.

McGwire hit his 62nd and 63rd home runs Wednesday night in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 4-3, 6-5 sweep of the San Diego Padres at St. Louis.

“I’ve been seeing him for almost three seasons and he is on another level,” said the Padres’ Tony Gwynn, who was seven for eight in the games. “It seems like he rises to any occasion. I like watching him, but it always seems to hurt our team.”

McGwire, who leads Sosa, 63-62, hasn’t been ahead since he was on top, 48-47, on Aug. 18. He trailed by as many as five homers at one point, but has homered in each of the last four games.

“He’s reaching real deep to play these games,” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said. “He would not have been kicking and screaming if I’d have sat him the second game or taken him out at any time, but he’s got an obligation to do it right.”

McGwire said before the game that he was tired mentally as much as physically because of the Cardinals’ 74-84 record. After the game, he said there was no secret to his method.

“Just get in the box, look for a pitch and swing, that’s about it,” McGwire said. “Three games left.”

Gwynn raised his average seven points to .339. He left to a standing ovation after singling in the eighth inning of the second game.

Philadelphia 5, Chicago 0--Doug Glanville hit a three-run homer at Philadelphia, becoming the first Phillies’ player with 200 hits in a season since Pete Rose in 1979.

Sammy Sosa was one for four with a single and two strikeouts, leaving him with 62 homers.

Colorado 4, Arizona 1--Pedro Astacio tied a Colorado record with his 17th victory, pitching his seventh complete game of the season as the Rockies ended the Diamondbacks’ seven-game winning streak at Phoenix.

Montreal 5, Florida 3--Vladimir Guerrero drove in the go-ahead run during an eighth-inning rally at Montreal.

Pittsburgh 7-2, Milwaukee 5-5--Todd Ritchie won for the fifth time in six games as the Pirates won the first game of a doubleheader at Milwaukee.

Late-season acquisition Jason Bere got his second win in a Brewer uniform with six strong innings in the second game.

Around the League

Baseball plans to fire four employees responsible for evaluating umpires as a part of a reorganization designed to rein in umps, two senior baseball officials said. The four employees, all former umpires, will be let go at the end of the season. They include Paul Runge, the National League’s executive director of umpires and a former president of the umpire’s union, and three evaluators: Jim Quick and Harry Wendelstedt of the NL and Don Denkinger of the American League. . . . The father of St. Louis Cardinal pitcher Rick Ankiel pleaded not guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine at West Palm Beach, Fla.