McGwire has no answer for Sosa, goes 1-for-3

McGwire had two games to answer Sammy Sosa's two-homer salvo, but came up empty. So the home run derby remained tied at 65 last night after McGwire went 1-for-3 with a walk in the St. Louis Cardinals' 6-3 victory over the Montreal Expos.

McGwire, who last homered on Sunday, is 2-for-10 - both singles - in the first three games of the Cardinals' season-ending, six-game homestand.

And now both he and Sosa, who had the day off, have three games to go to settle the race.

Ray Lankford had four hits and four RBIs, including a three-run homer, as the Cardinals won for the seventh time in eight games.

AP PHOTO Since hitting his 65th home run Sunday, Mark McGwire has gone 2-for-10, and Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa has caught up to him. Both have three games left this season.

Before the game, Expos manager Felipe Alou said that his pitchers would challenge McGwire, saying: ''We're not going to walk him like cowards, but we're not going to put it on a tee for him.''

Rookie Javier Vazquez (5-15) looked a bit skittish in the first when he walked McGwire on four pitches to extend his NL record to 160. For that, Vazquez was booed when he came to the plate in the second inning.

Donovan Osborne (5-4) survived a shaky start, allowing three runs in six innings. Juan Acedevo worked the ninth for his 13th save.

NL Wild Card Update: After the Chicago Cubs dropped the ball, the Mets failed to do anything with it.

Given a chance to move one game ahead of Chicago atop the NL wild-card race, the Mets fizzled Wednesday night, getting just three hits in a 3-0 loss to the Montreal Expos.

Bob Henley homered in the second inning off Bobby Jones (9-9) and winner Carl Pavano (6-8) added an RBI double later in the inning for the Expos, who went 8-4 against New York this year.

With three games to go, the Mets remained tied with the Cubs, who blew a seven-run lead and lost 8-7 at Milwaukee when left fielder Brant Brown dropped a bases-loaded fly with

09-25-98