Sosa Provides the Power to Propel Cubs to Victory : Baseball: He homers off Dreifort to break scoreless tie and Dodger hitters are baffled by Farnsworth in 6-0 loss.

The startling crack of the bat. A quick gasp from the crowd. It was the kind of hit that makes pitchers hang their heads and outfielders stop dead in their tracks.

What’s more, Sammy Sosa’s seventh-inning home run, which sailed well beyond the right-field fence, appeared to knock the wind out of the Dodgers.

The solo shot broke up what had been a pitcher’s duel, igniting a late offensive flurry and sending the Chicago Cubs to a 6-0 victory on a balmy Sunday evening at Dodger Stadium.

“I just hit the ball the opposite way,” Sosa said. “If I don’t hit that home run, we probably don’t score some runs like that.”

It was Sosa’s 54th homer and it was all the Cubs really needed as rookie pitcher Kyle Farnsworth (3-7) came up with the performance of his young career, limiting the Dodgers to two hits in his first shutout.

This is a 23-year-old kid who has bounced back and forth between the major leagues and triple-A several times this season.

A kid who lasted slightly more than five innings in a 10-5 victory over the Dodgers last May. A kid who was pitching in Iowa just a week ago.

“I feel more confident throwing my pitches now,” Farnsworth said. “I moved the ball in and out, changing speeds.”

None of the Dodger hitters could figure him out. Not Eric Young or Gary Sheffield or Eric Karros, all of whom have been playing well but went hitless on Sunday.

Farnsworth cooled off a team that had won seven of nine games and was looking for a weekend sweep.

Manager Davey Johnson could only wonder where the Cubs had found the rookie, saying: “He made us look bad.”

Dreifort seemed equally mystified.

For six innings the Dodger starter, whose record slipped to 11-13, showed the command that had earned him victories in his last two starts.

Only once was he truly in danger, when the Cubs had men on first and second with one out in the first inning.

Dreifort coaxed Mark Grace into a double play to get out of that jam.

Inning for inning, he matched Farnsworth as a restless crowd of 47,411 was treated to a defensive showdown.

Then came the seventh and that pitch to Sosa, an outside fastball.

Dreifort figured it was a safe enough pitch and Sosa, for his part, was merely looking to recover from subpar performances on Friday and Saturday, when he went one for eight with nothing approaching a long ball.

“I’ve been swinging at pitches out of the strike zone,” Sosa said. This time, “I went up there relaxed.”

Once the 2-and-0 pitch was hit, right fielder Raul Mondesi took only a step or two back, realizing that it was gone.

Grace followed with a double and Glenallen Hill drew a walk. Tyler Houston bunted and Dodger third baseman Adrian Beltre threw wildly to first. When Gary Gaetti singled to left-center, the score was 4-0.

“I felt like I made good pitches,” Dreifort said. But then he added: “A loss is a loss. I don’t care how good or bad you pitch.”

Farnsworth wasn’t about to falter, not on this night.

He helped himself by fielding a couple of ground balls and getting a glove on Mark Grudzielanek’s line drive back to the box in the sixth inning.

The only hits he surrendered were a bloop single by Todd Hollandsworth in the fourth and a Grudzielanek grounder in the ninth.

Even when Farnsworth made mistakes, he said, “I got lucky . . . fortunately [the Dodgers] hit the ball right at guys.”

To top things off, the pitcher collected his first major-league RBI with a ninth-inning single off reliever Matt Herges that made the score 6-0.

On any other night, on almost any other team, Farnsworth would have been the star. But the crowd’s cheers were reserved for Sosa, who went three for three and provided the most important swing of the night.

One hit that changed the game.

“That’s my job,” he said. “We just took off from there.”

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