Sosa Homers Twice but Cubs Still Lose

Sammy Sosa is eight games ahead of last year’s home run pace and has overtaken Mark McGwire for the major league lead with six weeks left in his second consecutive monster season.

Here’s his problem: His team, the Chicago Cubs, is struggling.

“The way we’re playing, I’m not thinking about the race,” Sosa said Friday after his 48th and 49th homers couldn’t prevent an 11-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Chicago.

Sosa, who has one-homer lead over McGwire, didn’t hit his 49th last season until the 128th game. The Cubs have played 120 so far. And they’ve lost 22 of their last 27.

“I’m pretty concerned about the way we’ve been playing,” said Sosa, whose first homer cleared the bleachers in left-center. “I had a great game. But in despite of it, the situation here is that we’ve really been struggling. No matter what we’re doing, we’re still losing. I have a great game and we still lose.”

Rumors are swirling around Cub Manager Jim Riggleman.

“He doesn’t have anything to do with it. No way you can blame the manager,” Sosa said. “If we play better, we win. I’m not a GM and they have to make the decision. I’m supporting him. We were playing great last year. This year because of the situation, we are going in a different direction. That doesn’t mean the worse for him.”

The Rockies’ Pedro Astacio (14-9) pitched a seven-hitter to win his fourth consecutive decision, striking out nine and walking two in his sixth complete game, a team record.

Vinny Castilla hit a two-run homer, his 26th, and had a two-run single for the Rockies.

Atlanta 4, San Diego 3--Ozzie Guillen’s slow infield grounder scored Andruw Jones from third base in the 11th inning at Atlanta as the Braves pulled within two percentage points of first place in the National League East.

Andruw Jones led off the 11th against Carlos Reyes (2-4) with a double to the gap in left-center, and took third when Ruben Rivera misplayed the carom off the wall.

With one out, Guillen dribbled a grounder that eluded the dive of Reyes. Second baseman David Newhan fielded the ball but Jones easily beat the desperation throw with a headfirst slide.

Houston 6, Florida 4--The Astros struck out 21 times, stranded 20 runners, blew a four-run lead and still won after Ken Caminiti hit his second home run of the game leading off the 16th inning at Miami.

Seven Marlin pitchers walked 17 Astros, a team record for both clubs. The Astros’ strikeout total broke the team record of 20 set against Kerry Wood of the Chicago Cubs last year.

Jeff Bagwell went 0 for 2 and walked six times to tie the major league record. Craig Biggio struck out four times for the Astros, who managed only seven hits and had none in extra innings until Caminiti homered against Jesus Sanchez (4-6).

Pittsburgh 5, Arizona 4--Brian Giles homered twice to spoil Todd Stottlemyre’s return to the Diamondbacks’ rotation and Todd Ritchie of the Pirates settled down after a two-homer first inning at Pittsburgh.

Giles homered in the first, then added a two-run shot in the fifth--his 28th--to make the score 5-2, one batter before Stottlemyre was lifted.

Stottlemyre (4-2), who finished three pitches shy of his 100-pitch limit, gave up five runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. It was his first appearance since he was diagnosed with a partially torn right rotator following a May 17 start against the San Francisco Giants.

Montreal 5, Cincinnati 3--Vladimir Guerrero extended his hitting streak to 25 games and Shane Andrews singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning at Cincinnati.

Guerrero hit his 29th homer high off the left-field foul screen in the sixth against Denny Neagle for his third hit of the game, a solo shot that cut Cincinnati’s lead to 3-2.

The Expos then scored twice in the seventh against the Reds’ bullpen, which has the best earned-run average in the major leagues.

St. Louis vs. New York--The game at New York was postponed because of rain and will be made up Sunday as part of a doubleheader.