NEW YORK - Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, who led baseball's resurgence with their home-run race last summer, will be starting together in the All-Star Game for the first time.
McGwire, who hit a record 70 home runs last year, and Sosa, who leads the major leagues with 32, were elected yesterday to start for the National League July 13.
The second-year Arizona Diamondbacks were the only team to place two players in the starting lineup: Matt Williams won at third base, and Jay Bell overtook Houston's Craig Biggio to win at second.
Mike Piazza of the New York Mets will be at catcher, McGwire of St. Louis at first, and Barry Larkin of Cincinnati at shortstop.
Chicago's Sosa, Colorado's Larry Walker, and San Diego's Tony Gwynn were elected to start in the outfield.
Gwynn, elected to his 15th All-Star game and 11th starting spot, won't play because of a calf injury that has put him on the disabled list. But he will travel to Boston.
''I really wanted a chance to play in Fenway, but being on the DL, I can't,'' he said. ''It's not right.''
Bell, who trailed Biggio 697,326 to 658,407 in totals announced last week, finished with 1,203,902, about 32,000 ahead of his Houston rival, who wound up at 1,171,574.
Before this week, none of the votes cast on the Internet had been included in the weekly totals. Fans were allowed to vote up to 22 times on the Internet - the average number of home games for each team during the balloting.
Larkin, who led New York's Rey Ordonez by fewer than 10,000 votes last week, won by a wide margin, 858,203 to 799,858. Larkin will be making his 10th All-Star appearance, his fourth as a starter.
Sosa, a three-time All-Star but a first-time starter, led all NL players at 2,315,204, picking up nearly 1 million votes in the final week of counting. He was followed by Walker at 1,147,524 and Gwynn at 1,054,785. San Francisco's Barry Bonds was fourth at 732,765.
Walker will be making his fourth appearance, his third straight as a starter.
Piazza will be going to his seventh straight All-Star game and is starting for the sixth consecutive time. McGwire, an 11-time All-Star, is starting for the seventh time.
Williams, a five-time All-Star, returns to the game for the first time since 1996 and will make his fourth start. For Bell, it's his second appearance and first start.
Pitchers and reserves for both leagues will be picked today.
