LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In just his second game back from the disabled list, Adrian Beltre demonstrated how much the Los Angeles Dodgers missed their third baseman.

Beltre, sidelined almost three weeks because of a strained right hamstring, hit a three-run homer Sunday as the Dodgers overcame Mark McGwire's 25th home run and beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-3.

	Mark McGwire's two-run homer in the first put him one behind Mike Schmidt for seventh on the all-time list.

Park (9-4) ignited a five-run third inning with a leadoff single. He was forced at second on a grounder by Todd Hollandsworth, who scored the tying run from first when right fielder J.D. Drew charged Mark Grudzielanek's single and made a wild throw past third base. Grudzielanek ended up at third on the error and scored on Gary Sheffield's sacrifice fly for a 3-2 lead.

Shawn Green followed with a bloop single and Eric Karros walked, before Beltre drove a 1-2 pitch to left for his sixth homer and a 6-2 lead.

"We missed him a lot," Park said of Beltre. "He played well for us and we're very thankful."

Park allowed three runs and seven hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking none. The right-hander, who had a career-high 12 strikeouts against the Cardinals on May 13 at St. Louis, has a 2.27 ERA during his winning streak.

"The winning streak doesn't matter. My next game is what's important," Park said. "My last game against them at St. Louis helped me tonight. I threw a lot of fastballs in to left-handed hitters and moved my fastball around against right-handed hitters."

Karros hit his 20th homer and Jeff Shaw got three outs for his 12th save in 17 opportunities -- and first since May 19 at Florida. The right-hander was given seven days to rest a sore shoulder after a blown save May 30, then eased back into the closer role by manager Davey Johnson.

"I knew it was only a matter of time before I got back out there," Shaw said. "But when you go back out there, you've got to capitalize. And that's the nature of my job. You've got to slam the door."

Darryl Kile (10-4), trying to tie Randy Johnson and David Wells for the major league lead in victories, allowed six runs and six hits in six innings. The right-hander has surrendered 14 earned runs over 11 2/3 innings in two starts against the Dodgers for a 10.80 ERA, but his ERA against the rest of the league is 3.64.

"They've got a good team. If you make bad pitches, they're going to hit the ball hard. And that's what happened," Kile said. "Beltre did a good job. He fouled off a tough pitch, and when he got a good pitch to hit, he hit it out. What can you do? You've got to make better pitches than that."

McGwire, who did not homer against Park in 12 previous at-bats, gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the first with an opposite-field drive to right-center following Shawon Dunston's single. The home run was the 547th of McGwire's career, putting him one behind Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt for seventh place.

Karros drove in the Dodgers' first run in the second with his fifth homer in six games this season against the Cardinals. He became the fourth player in franchise history with at least six consecutive 20-homer seasons, joining Gil Hodges (11), Duke Snider (nine) and Ron Cey (six).

Cardinals second baseman and leadoff hitter Fernando Vina sat out because of a pulled right hamstring he sustained while running out a grounder in the eighth inning Saturday.

The loss ended the NL Central leaders' season-high six-game winning streak. The Cardinals ended their road trip 6-3 after starting it with a pair of interleague losses at Detroit. Eli Marrero drove in their third run with a seventh-inning single.

Game notes
The 7-year-old daughter of Dodger Stadium p.a. announcer Mike Carlucci was sitting next to him in the press box on Father's Day, when a foul ball by Park struck her flush on her right temple in the sixth inning. Sierra Carlucci had a good cry, but never lost consciousness and was checked by paramedics after returning to her dad's side. ... Despite five fewer home runs than McGwire, and a batting average 43 points lower than Big Mac, Karros has a 59-55 edge over him in RBI and a 64-53 advantage in hits. But McGwire has drawn 29 more walks than Karros -- and also created a bigger frenzy in the left-field bleachers during batting practice than his first-base counterpart.