Sosa’s 57th Unmatched

Before Friday night, Sammy Sosa had hit a home run against every team in the National League but the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sosa corrected that glitch in short order, banging his 57th home run in the first inning and closing to two behind Mark McGwire, who stayed homerless at 59 against Cincinnati.

But it was a stinging drive to shortstop in the ninth inning that proved Sosa’s most damaging hit of the night, handcuffing error-prone Pirate shortstop Lou Collier with the bases loaded and giving the Chicago Cubs the go-ahead run in a 5-2 victory. That kept Chicago a game ahead of the New York Mets in their drive for a wild-card berth.

“I’m not thinking home run because I just wanted to make contact,” Sosa said of his ninth-inning shot. Mark Grace followed with a two-run single that secured the victory.

The ninth-inning rally thrilled the Cubs, but it was Sosa’s first-inning blast to right-center that electrified everyone else at the stadium. The 35,000 Pirate fans gave him a standing ovation. The umpire crew joined in, hailing Sosa with discreet upturned thumbs as he headed back to right field at the inning’s end.

“It’s the same to me,” Sosa said. “No matter how far or how short you hit it, it’s still a home run. It feels great.”

Sosa erupted on his third swing, connecting with Jason Schmidt’s 95-mph fastball.

“I waited there and he threw me a few pitches and I was patient,” Sosa said. Both were fastballs inside. He is more willing to gamble on inside pitches these days, Sosa said, and “that’s why it goes to right field most of the time. I don’t have no problem inside.”

The home run dethroned Cub great Hack Wilson a second time this week. Already stripped of his 1930 National League record of 56 home runs by McGwire three nights ago, Wilson is no longer even the greatest Cub single-season slugger.

Now it is Sosa, who joked that he was wearing a Superman T-shirt under his uniform before the game. In the clubhouse afterward, Sosa showed off the shirt, printed with the legend, “It’s a baseball thing.”

It was an apt choice on a night that Pirate fans cheered him on every one of his five approaches to the plate.

The applause grew less enthusiastic by the time Sosa stepped into the box in the ninth. With one out, the bases were full.

It was a picture-perfect moment for a home run, but Sosa got the job done with his hard grounder.

Matt Karchner (3-0), who relieved starter Mark Clark in the seventh, got the victory. Rod Beck got his 43rd save.

Before the game ended, the stadium’s scoreboard gave fans a peek at the tightening home run race live from Cincinnati.

In his larger-than-life video, McGwire seemed to be having a futile night. Waiting out in right field, Sammy Sosa was having the time of his life.

“Hey, I was pulling for Mark,” Sosa said in the clubhouse. “I was ready to clap if he hit one.”