ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire face off for the final time in 1999 this afternoon as the Chicago Cubs meet the St. Louis Cardinals in the season finale.

	SEASON SERIES
	May 28 May 29 May 30 Aug. 13 Aug. 14 Aug. 15 Sep. 20 Sep. 21 Sep. 22 Oct. 1 Oct. 2 Oct. 3	at Chicago Cubs 6, St. Louis 3 at Chicago Cubs 4, St. Louis 3 at Chicago Cubs 7, St. Louis 4 at St. Louis 7, Chicago Cubs 1 Chicago Cubs 9, at St. Louis 7 at St. Louis 6, Chicago Cubs 5 St. Louis 7, at Chicago Cubs 2 St. Louis 7, at Chicago Cubs 2 at Chicago Cubs 5, St. Louis 3 Chicago Cubs 3, at St. Louis 2 Chicago Cubs 6, at St. Louis 3 Chicago Cubs at St. Louis, 2:10pm ET

Mark McGwire put himself in position to win his second straight home run title on Saturday, belting his 64th in the Cardinals' 6-3 loss to Sosa's Cubs. McGwire, who beat Sosa by a 70-66 margin in last season's well-publicized "Home Run Derby", has a two-homer lead entering today.

McGwire smacked his 520th career homer to tie Willie McCovey and Ted Williams for 10th on the all-time list and is in line to become the first player to win consecutive National League home runs crowns since Dale Murphy did it for the Atlanta Braves in 1984-85.

Journeyman Larry Luebbers (2-3, 4.54 ERA) takes the ball for St. Louis, making his first start since September 5 when he allowed four runs and five hits over 4 1/3 innings in a 13-9 victory at Milwaukee.

Chicago's Steve Trachsel (8-17, 5.38) shoots for his third straight win. The righthander has allowed five runs and 15 hits over 15 innings in his previous two outings, including a 5-3 victory over St. Louis on September 22.

The Cubs have won seven of their last 10 games while the Cardinals have dropped six of their last eight.

CHICAGO CUBS 10-game log	ST. LOUIS 10-game log
Sep. 26 Sep. 28 Sep. 29 Sep. 30 Oct. 1 Oct. 2 Oct. 3 Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia @ Philadelphia @ Philadelphia @ St. Louis @ St. Louis @ St. Louis L 4-8 W 8-2 L 0-5 L 1-2 W 3-2 W 6-3	Sep. 27 Sep. 28 Sep. 29 Sep. 29 Oct. 1 Oct. 2 Oct. 3 @ Cincinnati San Diego San Diego San Diego Chicago Cubs Chicago Cubs Chicago Cubs L 7-9 7-9 W 4-3 W 6-5 L 2-3 L 3-6

Chicago regulars

POS

NO

PLAYER

HT

WT

B/T

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

AVG

C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF

16 17 12 29 8 11 40 1 21

Jeff Reed Mark Grace Mickey Morandini Tyler Houston Gary Gaetti Jose Nieves Henry Rodriguez Lance Johnson Sammy Sosa

6-2 6-2 5-11 6-1 6-0 6-1 6-2 5-11 6-0

202 200 180 210 205 185 220 165 210

L-R L-L L-R L-R R-R R-R L-L L-L R-R

256 590 453 276 280 181 447 332 622

66 183 110 62 57 45 136 85 179

16 44 18 10 9 9 29 11 24

2 5 5 1 1 1 0 6 2

3 16 4 10 9 2 26 1 62

28 91 37 30 46 18 87 20 138

.258 .310 .243 .225 .204 .249 .304 .256 .288

Complete Chicago roster

St Louis regulars

POS

NO

PLAYER

HT

WT

B/T

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

AVG

C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF

26 25 47 23 3 16 7 5

Eli Marrero Mark McGwire Joe McEwing Fernando Tatis Edgar Renteria Ray Lankford J.D. Drew Thomas Howard

6-1 6-5 5-11 5-10 6-1 5-11 6-1 6-2

180 250 170 170 180 200 195 205

R-R R-R R-R R-R R-R L-L L-R B-R

317 520 513 534 583 422 365 192

61 144 141 158 160 129 88 55

13 21 28 31 36 32 16 10

1 1 4 2 2 1 6 0

6 64 9 34 11 15 13 6

34 146 44 105 62 63 39 27

.192 .277 .275 .296 .274 .306 .241 .286

Complete St Louis roster

Regulars Statistics source: STATS, Inc.

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