Asked two weeks ago whether he could catch Mark McGwire in the chase for Roger Maris’ home run record, Sammy Sosa had a ready response.
“No, no, no, no,” Sosa said. “No, no, no, no. I mean, no, no, no.”
But while Sosa’s lips may say “No, no, no,” his bat keeps saying “Yes, yes, yes.”
Sosa cranked out two more home runs Saturday night in the Cubs’ 9-4 victory over Philadelphia, breaking the major-league record for homers in June, putting himself on pace to surpass Maris’ cherished mark and pulling to within four home runs of Cardinals slugger McGwire.
Not to be outdone, some kid pitcher for the Cubs who goes by the name of Kerry Wood hit his first major-league home run, slugging a first-pitch fastball into bush country in center field to give himself a 6-4 lead in the sixth inning and igniting chants of “Kerry, Kerry, Kerry” from the sellout crowd of 39,761. Oh, by the way, this Wood kid also struck out 11 while running his record to 7-3.
But for once, Wood had to take a back seat on this joyride as Sosa continued his long-distance dialing binge. Sosa hit a towering two-run home run into the left-field bleachers off Phillies starter Matt Beech in the third, and added a three-run shot onto Waveland Avenue off Toby Borland in the sixth, his 16th of June. That one broke the record for June set by Babe Ruth in 1930 and tied by Bob Johnson (1934), Maris (1961) and Pedro Guerrero (1985).
He also broke Andre Dawson’s franchise record for homers in any month (15), and his five RBIs gave him 33 for the month, eclipsing Hack Wilson’s Cub record for RBIs in any month (28).
“I’ve never seen anyone hit like this for power,” Cubs manager Jim Riggleman said.
Well . . . has anyone?
Sosa now has 29 home runs this season, putting him on a 64-homer pace. He began the month with 13 home runs to McGwire’s 27, but he’s stunned the baseball world with one of the most lethal displays of power hitting in major-league history–20 homers in 21 games.
With nine games left in June, Sosa needs two more to tie Rudy York’s 61-year-old record of 18 home runs in one calendar month, and one more to tie Willie Mays’ 34-year-old National League record of 17 in a month.
The Phillies held a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the third and Wood was looking very mortal indeed. After seven straight starts of pitching in a zone of his own, Wood was coming off two semi-ordinary outings against Minnesota and Milwaukee.
He struggled at first, giving up a two-out, two-run single to Beech in the second inning, and back-to-back RBI doubles to Mike Lieberthal and Bobby Abreu in the third, both coming on two-strike pitches. But Wood settled down, shutting the Phils down in the next four innings and allowing four runs on nine hits with 11 strikeouts in a 7 1/3-inning stint.
The Cubs pulled within a run on Sosa’s first home run in the third, and eventually grabbed the lead on a sacrifice fly by the ubiquitous Brant Brown in the fifth. Sosa’s second homer, a monster shot that nearly hit a building on Waveland in the sixth, gave Wood all the support he needed.
Riggleman removed Wood with a 9-4 lead after he reached 123 pitches in the seventh, receiving a communal booing by the raucous crowd. Wood then was rewarded with a standing ovation as he left the mound.
After reaching the ultimate high in his 20-strikeout gem, what else is there for Wood to shoot for? You can only discover the theory of relativity once. You can only build one Eiffel Tower. And chances are you can only throw a one-hit, 20-strikeout game once in a lifetime.
Some fans expect Wood to strike out 15-20 hitters and throw a shutout every time he takes the mound. Riggleman doesn’t want Cubs fans taking that attitude when Wood is pitching, but isn’t that the nature of fans–to imagine players accomplishing great feats every time they put on a uniform?
“It probably is,” Riggleman said. “And I’m glad that they do feel that, but when it doesn’t happen, we don’t want them thinking that all of a sudden the player is underachieving. Kerry really has thrown some great ballgames after that Houston game. And Kerry said it the other day: `I don’t know if I’ll ever throw a ballgame that good again. How could I?’ “
Wood wasn’t as phenomenal as he has been in previous outings, but he bore down once the Cubs got back in the game and seemed to grow stronger.
Sosa had one more chance to add to his record when he came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Borland induced Sosa to ground one to second, but Sosa hustled down the line and reached when second baseman Mark Lewis booted the ball.
