Sosa Hits 59th Homer, but Cubs Lose to Brewers

By Nancy Armour
Associated Press
Friday, September 11, 1998; 7:13 p.m. EDT

CHICAGO – A young fan came to Wrigley Field toting a sign that let everyone know he was "Skippin' School for Sammy.''

Sammy came through.

Sosa hit his 59th home run, his first in six games, in the Chicago Cubs' 13-11 loss to Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.

Sosa's fifth-inning homer left him three behind Mark McGwire and tied him with Babe Ruth for the fourth-most homers in a single season. Ruth hit 59 in 1921, and 60 in 1927. McGwire broke Roger Maris' single-season record of 61 Tuesday night.

Chicago, which began the day tied with the New York Mets in the NL wild-card race, saw starter Don Wengert (1-4) hammered for five runs in 2 1-3 innings. In the sixth, Terry Adams threw run-scoring wild pitches on consecutive at-bats.

Eric Plunk (1-2) gave up one hit in 2 1-3 innings, and struck out three, and Bob Wickman got four outs for his 23rd save.

Sosa hadn't homered in five games since last Saturday, his longest streak since a four-game stretch from Aug. 11-15.

Before the game, Cubs hitting coach Jeff Pentland sat down with Sosa in the clubhouse and gave him an intense, five-minute pep talk. Sosa listened intently, nodding his head several times, and Pentland gave him a few pats on the back.

Sosa looked more relaxed in his first two at-bats, hitting a sharp single to left in the first inning and flying out to the right-field warning track in the third.

Two innings later, Sosa sent Bill Pulsipher's 0-1 pitch over the right-field wall, sending the fans in the right-field bleachers into a frenzy.

It was just the 10th home run off of a left-handed pitcher for Sosa, and his 18th to right field. Sosa struck out swinging in the sixth and grounded to shortstop in the eighth.

His homer seemed to wake up the Cubs, who closed to 10-9 on Gary Gaetti's two-run homer and Jeff Blauser's RBI triple in the fifth.

Adams, the fourth Cubs pitcher, threw three wild pitches in a row in the sixth, leading to two runs. Fernando Vina's RBI double made it 13-9.

Kerry Wood, who was supposed to start but was scratched because of a sore elbow, is sidelined for at least a week because of a sprained ligament in his right elbow.

Wengert hit Vina with a pitch in the third inning, then gave up RBI doubles to Mark Loretta and Jeff Cirillo, and a three-run homer to Jeromy Burnitz. Reliever Rodney Myers then walked Marquis Grissom and gave up an RBI double to Geoff Jenkins.

Vina doubled leading off the fourth, and Dave Nilsson, Grissom and Jose Valentin all hit RBI doubles.

Aside from Sosa, the lone bright spot for the Cubs was Jason Maxwell, who who made it 9-5 with a two-run homer in the fourth, his first major league hit. Mark Grace had an RBI single in the eighth and Tyler Houston hit one in the ninth.

Notes: Sosa has seven homers off of the Brewers this season, more than any team but Philadelphia. ... Maxwell was 0-for-2 in his previous two games. ... Sosa was honored before the game by Latino Baseball Magazine as the Outstanding Latino Player of 1998. Bienvenido Perez, consul general of the Dominican Republic, was there for the ceremony. ... Milwaukee batted around in the third and all but three Brewers scored.