Sosa Hits 53rd Homer in Victory

San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker had a tough decision in the eighth inning: let Sammy Sosa bat with two runners on and a two-run lead or walk him to face Mark Grace.

After Sosa had already hit his major league-leading 53rd home run in the fifth inning, Baker chose to face Grace.

“He made the wrong [decision],” Grace said.

Grace hit a game-tying two-run single in the eighth and the Chicago Cubs rallied from five runs down to beat the Giants, 11-10, on Mickey Morandini’s RBI double in the ninth.

“That’s a pick-your-poison situation,” Baker said. “You certainly don’t want to face Sammy Sosa and you don’t want to face Grace either.”

The Cubs trailed, 7-2, after three innings before rallying behind Sosa and Grace, who hit consecutive homers in the fifth.

Sosa has 10 homers in the last 12 games for the Cubs, who are only 5-20 in August.

Sosa, who has nearly one-third of the Cubs 160 homers, connected on a 1-and-1 pitch from Livan Hernandez in the fifth.