Sosa Hits Pair as Home Run Race Heats Up

Sammy Sosa is in another home run race with Mark McGwire.

Sosa hit a pair of homers to raise his major league-leading total to 40 and Gary Gaetti hit the 11th grand slam of his career Saturday in the Chicago Cubs’ 17-10 victory over the New York Mets at Chicago.

Sosa had reclaimed the major league lead with his 38th on Friday, but McGwire answered later that night with his 38th in the St. Louis Cardinals’ game against the Colorado Rockies.

“He’ll probably hit two tonight,” Sosa said of McGwire. McGwire hit a two-run homer, his 39th, in the third inning of the Cardinals’ game against the Rockies on Saturday night.

Last year, McGwire led the majors in homers most of the season, and he and Sosa captured the nation’s attention with their long-ball heroics.

“That’s what the fans are looking for,” Sosa said. “I feel great that we’re doing it again. I hope he continues to get hot and I continue to do my job.”

Sosa hit a 3-2 pitch from starter Octavio Dotel over the right-field bleachers onto Sheffield Avenue in the second inning to open a 9-3 lead.

He led off the eighth with his second homer, hitting a 3-2 pitch from Dennis Cook onto Waveland Avenue over the left-field bleachers.

It’s the third time Sosa has reached 40 homers in a season. He has three multihomer games this year and 36 in his career.

St. Louis 6, Colorado 5--Mark McGwire hit his 496th home run and J.D. Drew broke a sixth-inning tie with a solo shot at St. Louis.

The teams combined for five homers in the third inning, tying a major league record that has been accomplished 19 times. Todd Helton, Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla homered in a four-batter span in the top of the third to put the Rockies ahead, 4-0. The Cardinals answered with consecutive homers by McGwire and Fernando Tatis to cut the gap to 4-3.

McGwire has 12 homers in his last 16 games and tied his record of 219 homers in four consecutive seasons. He also did it from 1995-98.

San Francisco 11, Cincinnati 1--Barry Bonds homered in his first two at-bats for the second consecutive game and had a season-high five runs batted in at Cincinnati as the Giants handed the Reds their most lopsided loss of the season.

It was Bonds’ third multihomer game this season and the 38th of his career, moving him ahead of Stan Musial, Ted Williams and Juan Gonzalez into 20th place on the all-time list.

Atlanta 8, Philadelphia 6--Brian Jordan hit a two-run homer and drove in four runs at Atlanta as the Braves reclaimed first place in the National League East.

Pittsburgh 4, Florida 2--Dale Sveum, his career seemingly over when the New York Yankees demoted him to bullpen coach last season, hit a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning at Pittsburgh.

Montreal 4, Milwaukee 2--Vladimir Guerrero’s ninth-inning double drove in the go-ahead run at Milwaukee.