Sosa Doubles His Pleasure

Sammy Sosa is aiming for the fences with extra vigor. And he’s not missing.

Sosa homered in consecutive at-bats, giving him four in two games, and the Chicago Cubs defeated the San Diego Padres, 6-1, Thursday to end their season-high five-game losing streak.

Sosa seemed to hop out of the batter’s box with extra energy after he drove his first homer an estimated 426 feet into the seats in left-center field leading off the fourth, the first of a season-high four homers for the Cubs.

“We lost the first two games [of the series] and today we came out with intensity and got it into our heads that we need some runs,” Sosa said. “When you have that attitude, really, you’ve got something. We played some great ball today.”

Sosa took over the major league lead with 12 homers, one ahead of Houston’s Lance Berkman and Florida’s Cliff Floyd. Sosa also moved into a tie with Jose Canseco for 22nd on the career list with 462. He moved past Ken Griffey Jr., who has 461.

Sosa’s first homer came on a full-count pitch. He got another belt-high fastball on a 3-0 count leading off the sixth and hit a line shot that just cleared the fence 379 feet away in left-center.

“We’ve been waiting for it for a while,” manager Don Baylor said. “I know he has too.”