Sammy Sosa served notice on Wednesday that the thrilling race for baseball's single-season home run record would go down to the wire by belting his 64th and 65th homers to tie St Louis Cardinals' batter Mark McGwire.

"The high is I hit 64 and 65. The low is we lost the game we had to win," said Sosa. "I would trade the two homers for the win today."

Sosa's home runs came from a 344 ft missile over the right-field fence and a 410-foot solo blast to dead centre field.