McGwire’s Ruthless

There were 20 channels on his hotel room television, but Sammy Sosa wasn’t channel surfing Saturday when Mark McGwire tied Babe Ruth with his 60th home run of the season. Sosa watched McGwire’s historic shot, then telegraphed his reply by bat Saturday night, stroking his 58th homer, leading the Cubs to an 8-4 victory over the Pirates.

“Man, it was pretty,” Sosa said after viewing McGwire’s power stroke.

But his own sixth-inning shot was no paint-by-the numbers job, a towering drive that stayed aloft long enough to allow every camera-snapping fan in the crowd of 37,711 ample time to turn Three Rivers Stadium into a concrete caldron of flashing white light.

The momentum of his call-and-response slugging chase with McGwire, Sosa admitted, has juiced his own hitting in the waning days of the season. “We’re pushing each other,” Sosa said. “He knows we’re doing a great job all year long together. Hey, we just know what to do and we’re not gonna stop right now. We got too many good numbers.”

Sosa has taken pride in muscling a flurry of recent home runs to the opposite field in right, and his 58th fell just above where his 57th dropped the previous night, 417 feet from home plate. It was his ninth home run in the last 13 games, a torrid pace that would awe any mortal except Mark McGwire.

“That’s why I’m a much better player now,” Sosa said afterward, pinned into his clubhouse cubbyhole by a mob of reporters. “I’m not thinking about pulling the ball. I’m just going with the pitches and taking them to right.”

The Cubs’ victory kept them a game ahead of the New York Mets, who have hung tough in the wild-card race, winning their last two against the Atlanta Braves. Sosa’s daily duel with McGwire may well be overshadowing his team’s playoff drive, but teammates such as second baseman Mickey Morandini are happy to see him siphon away the late-season pressure.

“All eyes on are on him and that helps us,” said Morandini, a tobacco-chewing hustler who played on the scrappy 1993 Phillies World Series underdog team. “I see some of the opposing pitchers. They’ll get this look of relief in their eyes after they get Sammy out and they’ll let their guard down. Then Gracie [first baseman Mark Grace] or somebody else comes in and beats ‘em.”

On Saturday night, it was third baseman Gary Gaetti who smacked a double, scoring Sosa, who had singled, after left fielder Glenallen Hill doubled him to third in the second inning. After Sosa stunned the Pirates with his leadoff sixth-inning homer, Hill and Gaetti singled, leading to another run.

For the second night, the Pirates allowed the roof to fall in, mishandling the ball three times--all by shortstop Abraham Nunez, who made two errors on one play, dropping an easy ground ball and then winging it far over first baseman Kevin Young.

Sosa, who went two for five, electrified the crowd once more in the ninth, sending a towering fly bouncing into the upper deck in left field, but 20 feet foul.

It produced another shuddering wave of camera flashes but did no damage. Sosa then struck out swinging.

He was satisfied with his night’s work.

“Foul balls don’t count, do they?” Sosa said.