Sosa Makes Deep Impact With No. 57

With the way Sammy Sosa is shadowing Mark McGwire, he has a career waiting for him as a private eye after he hangs up his cleats.

Sosa, while refusing to make his home run race a daily spectacle for either the media or batting practice fans, closed the gap Friday night by hitting his 57th homer of the season in his first at-bat in the Chicago Cubs’ 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Sosa pushed the count to 2-0--a murmur of dissatisfaction rising from the crowd after he allowed the second ball to go by--before driving right-hander Jason Schmidt’s third pitch off the scoreboard in right-center field to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

“There have been situations where I swung at pitches out of the strike zone,” Sosa said before the game, explaining an outburst of frustration in the dugout during the Cubs’ previous series against the Cincinnati Reds. “When you know what to do and you don’t do it, you sometimes get a little upset. But every day is a new day for me.”

But Sosa expressed no desire to move ahead of McGwire, who had 59 entering Friday night’s game against the Reds, or to beat him to Roger Maris’ record of 61. Sosa, hoping to sneak past McGwire in the final few games of the season, said he would like to see his long-ball rival break the record before they meet Monday in a two-game series in St. Louis.

“Makes it easier for me,” Sosa said. “Everybody knows that I’ve been pulling for Mark and I want him to pass the record. My situation is different. I’m here and we’re trying to win and make the playoffs. If it’s to happen for me, it’s going to happen, but I’m not going to go look for that.”

So while Pirate fans packed Three Rivers Stadium to capacity two weeks ago to watch McGwire and ESPN televised McGwire taking batting practice against the Reds, an estimated crowd of 40,000 came to see Sosa and the Cubs Friday night. And instead of trying to pound every batting-practice pitch into the stands, Sosa sprayed line drives, hitting only one of the first 11 into the stands, prompting one fan to moan, “C’mon, Sammy!”

Sosa’s homer came in the Cubs’ 141st game, or 12 fewer than it took Hack Wilson to hit his 56th in 1930--the same season that Wilson set the major league RBI record of 190. Wilson’s 56 homers also were an NL record until McGwire broke it Tuesday night in Miami.

Sosa needs two more homers to tie Wilson’s Cub record of 95 homers in two seasons. Sosa hit 36 last year.

Sosa hadn’t homered in Pittsburgh since May 26, 1997, an inside-the-park homer in the sixth inning off Francisco Cordova.

“This is pretty good right now,” Sosa said. “I can’t be in McGwire’s shoes. Mark McGwire is on a different level. I can’t go up there with Mark McGwire’s bat. He knows what he needs to do. Right now, I’m just another kid on the block. I’ll never say I want to go up there and beat Mark. I just hope to finish strong.”