Sosa Hits 400th Homer in 6-2 Loss

Sammy Sosa keeps hitting home runs and the Chicago Cubs keep losing.

Sosa hit his 400th home run Wednesday night, but the Houston Astros overcame the two-run shot to defeat the Cubs, 6-2, at Chicago.

Former Cub Orlando Merced’s tiebreaking home run in the seventh inning sent the Astros to their fourth consecutive victory and 10th in 13 games. The Cubs lost their sixth in a row.

It was a familiar story for the Cubs, who also fell Tuesday night despite Sosa’s 399th homer.

“Three-ninety-nine, 400 and you walk away with two losses,” Cub Manager Don Baylor said. “It should be a little more joyous.”

Baylor would probably prefer to be in Astro Manager Larry Dierker’s shoes.

“All the other teams have the milestones,” Dierker said. “We’ll take the wins.”

Sosa connected against Shane Reynolds (4-2) in the fourth, sending a drive into the right-field stands for his 14th homer of the season and tying the score, 2-2.

Sosa tipped his cap during a two-minute standing ovation from the Wrigley Field crowd, which chanted “Sam-my! Sam-my!”

“It feels great,” Sosa said. “My wife is here and my kid and they brought me good luck.”

With the shot, Sosa became the 33rd major leaguer--the seventh active--to hit 400 homers. He passed Hall of Famer Al Kaline on the all-time list.

St. Louis 3, Pittsburgh 0--Darryl Kile pitched a seven-hit shutout at Pittsburgh against the National League’s worst-hitting team and the Cardinals ran their winning streak to nine games.

J.D. Drew had a run-scoring triple in a three-run fifth inning and Kile (6-2) did the rest, getting big outs when he needed them as the Pirates lost their fifth in a row.

The defending National League Central champion Cardinals are back in the division lead despite a slow start, mostly because of the Pirates. The Cardinals are 6-0 against them over the last 10 days and have beaten them 10 consecutive times dating to Aug. 22.

Arizona 2, Cincinnati 1--Brian Reith, making his major league debut, took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning but later gave up home runs to Luis Gonzalez and Matt Williams at Cincinnati.

Curt Schilling (6-1) struck out 10 in seven innings and sent the Reds to their 12th loss in 14 games.

San Diego 5, New York 2--Rickey Henderson extended a major league record at New York with his 79th homer leading off a first inning, sending the Mets to their seventh loss in eight games.

Henderson’s homer, his first starting a game since last May 26 at Tampa Bay, began a four-run first inning against Glendon Rusch (2-3), who came in with a 0.00 earned-run average at home in three games and 21 innings.

Milwaukee 6, Philadelphia 1--Jimmy Haynes pitched eight shutout innings for the Brewers at Philadelphia.

Tony Fernandez and Ron Belliard hit solo homers for the Brewers (23-17), who have won five consecutive games and are six games over .500 for the first time since June 30, 1998.

Florida 4, San Francisco 3--Matt Clement retired 19 consecutive batters and gave up only one hit in the first seven innings to lead the Marlins at Miami.

Eric Owens and Derrek Lee hit solo homers, and Luis Castillo went three for three with a sacrifice fly for the Marlins, who ended the Giants’ five-game winning streak.

Atlanta 6, Colorado 4--Chipper Jones hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning and the Braves overcame a four-run deficit at Atlanta.

With the score tied, 4-4, Andruw Jones started the eighth by singling to left against John Wasdin (2-1). Jones then hit a 2-and-0 fastball into the bleachers in left-center for his 12th home run.

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The 400 Club

Sammy Sosa became the 33rd major league player with 400 home runs:

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Player Career Season At-Bats HR Best Per HR Hank Aaron 755 47 16.37 Babe Ruth 714 60 11.76 Willie Mays 660 52 16.47 Frank Robinson 586 49 17.06 Harmon Killebrew 573 49 14.22 Reggie Jackson 563 47 17.51 Mark McGwire 555 70 10.65 Mike Schmidt 548 48 15.24 Mickey Mantle 536 54 15.11 Jimmie Foxx 534 58 15.22 Willie McCovey 521 45 15.72 Ted Williams 521 43 14.79 Ernie Banks 512 47 18.41 Eddie Mathews 512 47 16.67 Mel Ott 511 42 18.52 Barry Bonds 509 49 14.87 Eddie Murray 504 33 22.47 Lou Gehrig 493 49 14.85 Stan Musial 475 39 23.09 Willie Stargell 475 48 16.69 Dave Winfield 465 37 23.64 Carl Yastrzemski 452 44 26.52 Jose Canseco 446 46 15.27 Dave Kingman 442 48 15.11 Andre Dawson 438 49 22.68 Ken Griffey Jr. 438 56 14.97 Billy Williams 426 42 21.93 Fred McGriff 424 37 17.66 Cal Ripken 419 34 26.69 Darrell Evans 414 41 21.69 Rafael Palmeiro 410 47 19.48 Duke Snider 407 43 17.60 Sammy Sosa 400 66 15.06

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