You know it’s a bad season when even the milestones ring hollow. Sammy Sosa wanted no part Tuesday of celebrating his 30th home run, the first time a Cub has strung together three full seasons at 30 or more since Ernie Banks and Ron Santo were homering with regularity.
“I’m not happy about it,” Sosa said after Pittsburgh smashed the Cubs. “We keep losing, keep losing. We have to go out there and do something different.”
Sosa’s pace has him in line to exceed the 50-homer mark and, if he really gets hot, challenge Hack Wilson’s team-record 56. Wilson hit his 30th that year (1930) on July 26, in the 95th game. Sosa reached 30 in his 93rd game.
Sosa has a nine-game hitting streak, during which he has homered four times and driven in 12 runs. If the Cubs really were playing well, Sosa would have more RBIs than that during the streak.
Moving on? Dave Magadan has been with five teams in the last five years, six if you count Florida twice. He has signed free-agent agreements with the Marlins, Houston and the Cubs.
He knows how that game works. That’s why the third baseman, 34 come September, sounds extremely skeptical when the question of whether he will return next season as a Cub is broached.
“If I continue hitting .170, it’s going to be tough to convince the general manager (Ed Lynch) to bring me back,” Magadan said. “That’s the bottom line. But there’s lots of baseball left to play.”
Hand surgery March 11 for a bone spur delayed Magadan’s season debut until May 31. But a month and a half later, the Cubs still are waiting for the .290 career hitter to show up, the one who exceeded that average by hitting .313 with the Astros last season.
“This is a big test for me,” said Magadan, limited to eight starts at third because Leo Gomez has played well there. “It’s different squeezing a bat than a baseball, and that took longer than I expected getting comfortable.”
Shortening up: Jose Hernandez makes no immodest claims. With Rey Sanchez perhaps a week or less from returning to his starting role at shortstop, Hernandez knows he hasn’t made it a tough decision for manager Jim Riggleman the way Gomez did when Magadan was healthy.
“They know I can play defense,” Hernandez said. “But until I hit a little more, they won’t consider me an everyday shortstop. I need to get to .250, .255 as a hitter, not .215 like I am.”
He has improved his swing recently, culminating Monday in his fourth homer this year.
Well-deserved break: It really wasn’t all bad that second baseman Ryne Sandberg sat out Tuesday’s game with a bruised thigh. Taking a pitch to the leg in Monday’s game with the Pirates may refresh him for the rest of the season.
After all, Sandberg had reached a bump in the up-and-down fortunes of hitters. He is just 1 for 15 in his last four games, striking out three times.
“He’s pretty sore,” said Riggleman, who wouldn’t predict when he would be back.
Body count: Sandberg isn’t the only one sacrificing his limbs. The Cubs are on an unusual streak: One of their players has been hit by a pitch in three straight games. The others are Gomez and Scott Servais (twice).
