Sosa Gets His Groove Back Against Rockies

There’s been a Slammin’ Sammy sighting.

Sammy Sosa emerged from a one-for-15 slump with two home runs, ending an 11-game drought and leading the Chicago Cubs to a come-from-behind 6-5 victory Thursday over the Colorado Rockies at Denver.

Sosa, who had not homered since May 10, hit a solo shot in the seventh for his 350th home run. He put the Cubs ahead with a two-run homer, his 15th, off Mike DeJean (0-1) in the eighth.

“I was hitting the ball hard in Chicago, and the wind was killing me and there’s nothing much you can do about it,” Sosa said. “But the way that I’ve been doing this year, I’ve been taking my walk, taking my base hit. I just want to pick it up again and hopefully I can continue it all year long.”

Sosa went 45 at-bats between home runs before becoming the 57th player in major league history to reach the 350 mark. He also has 40 multihomer games.

Jon Lieber (5-3) gave up five runs--three earned--and seven hits in seven innings for Chicago.

Rick Aguilera retired Jeffrey Hammonds on a hard grounder to third baseman Willie Greene with the bases loaded for his seventh save.

Houston 10, Philadelphia 6--Jeff Bagwell, Ken Caminiti and Mitch Meluskey hit two-run homers, and Richard Hidalgo had a solo shot as the Astros rallied twice at Houston.

Pat Burrell, who made his major league debut a night earlier, hit his first homer, and Bobby Abreu and Desi Relaford also connected for the Phillies.

A total of 84 home runs have been hit in 22 games at Enron Field, 42 by the Astros. Last year, 118 were hit all season in the Astrodome, 65 by Houston.

The Astros suffered some misfortune, however. Outfielder Roger Cedeno broke two bones in his right hand sliding into first base and will be at least six weeks.

San Francisco 4, Montreal 1--Barry Bonds, on a hitting tear since returning from a lower back injury, homered for the third straight game at San Francisco.

Bonds’ three-run homer was his 19th, leaving him one behind Mark McGwire for the major league lead. It was the 464th homer by Bonds, moving him within one of tying Dave Winfield for 20th place on the career list.

Bonds, who missed four games last week because of a sprained back, is hitting .588 in his five games since returning. Twelve of Bonds’ last 14 hits have been for extra bases.

St. Louis 7, Florida 6--Rick Ankiel struck out a career-high 11 and Jim Edmonds and Craig Paquette homered as the Cardinals finished a three-game sweep at St. Louis.

The Cardinals won their season-high fifth in a row. The Marlins lost their seventh straight despite four solo home runs.

In 6 2/3 innings against Florida, Ankiel (4-2) gave up seven hits, and he didn’t walk a batter for the first time in his career.

Arizona 7, Pittsburgh 5--Tony Womack extended his hitting streak to 20 games, the longest in the majors this year, with a go-ahead double in the sixth inning as the Diamondbacks won at Phoenix.

Arizona swept the three-game series and extended its franchise-record home winning streak to nine games.

Omar Daal (2-5) won for the first time in four starts since May 8 despite giving up three runs, six hits, four walks and a hit batter in six innings. Matt Mantei pitched the ninth for his first save of the season. He has spent most of the year on the disabled list because of biceps tendinitis.

Atlanta 7, Milwaukee 3--Terry Mulholland gave up four hits over seven innings and also drove in two runs at Milwaukee.

The Braves won in their final appearance at County Stadium, where they played from 1953-65. The Milwaukee Braves won the 1957 World Series.

Mulholland (4-4) won at Milwaukee for the second time this season, retiring 16 of the first 18 hitters he faced.