A somber Sammy Sosa tried to steer postgame conversation Friday away from his 48th and 49th home runs of the season and on to a couple of distasteful subjects: the Cubs’ 22nd loss in 27 games and the fate of manager Jim Riggleman.
“Even when I have a great day like today, I do not think of the home run race,” Sosa said after moving eight games ahead of his 66-homer pace of 1998. “I’m concerned about how the Cubs are doing. No matter what we do, we still lose games.”
As for Riggleman, widely believed to be serving out his final days as Cubs manager, Sosa said: “I’m no general manager, but I support him 100 percent. We cannot continue like this. We have a month and a half left to play better, to play for respect. We have to perform.”
Friday’s 11-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies was witnessed by a standing-room crowd of 40,130 fans, who lifted Wrigley Field attendance above the 2-million mark for the 13th time in the last 16 seasons.
With the Cubs far out of playoff conmtention, the fans had come for a Sammy Sosa show, and he did not disappoint them. One Pedro Astacio pitch after Mark Grace’s homer in the third inning, they rose screaming when Sosa launched a drive almost 500 feet and out of the park to cut Colorado’s lead to 4-2.
With the Rockies leading 7-2 in the sixth, Sosa crushed a pitch from Astacio into the uppermost row of the bleachers in left-center field.
Never mind that the Cubs still trailed by four runs. Fans stood screaming “Sam-mee, Sam-mee” until Sosa stepped out of the dugout and acknowledged the cheers with a curtain call.
The Cubs’ deficit was 8-3 in the eighth, but virtually the entire crowd stuck around to see Sosa bat again. He ended the inning with a towering pop foul to third baseman Vinny Castilla, who had homered and driven in four runs. As Sosa’s pop settled into Castilla’s glove, fans streamed for the exits. Less than half of them remained at the finish.
Astacio, ace of the Rockies’ staff, pitched a complete-game seven-hitter and improved his record to 14-9.
In contrast, rookie Kyle Farnsworth (2-7) was cuffed for seven hits and seven runs in 3 2/3 innings as his earned-run average rose to 6.17.
Poor defense also contributed to the Cubs’ fifth straight loss. Four of the seven runs off Farnsworth were unearned. Farnsworth made one error and could have been charged with another. Colorado stretched its lead from 4-2 to 7-2 in the fourth, and all three runs were unearned because of an error by rookie shortstop Jose Nieves, who dropped catcher Jeff Reed’s throw that was in time to nail would-be base thief Henry Blanco.
Shoddy fielding has played a huge role in the Cubs’ collapse. The Cubs have a 27-22 record in their 49 errorless games and are 24-47 in the 71 games in which they have committed at least one error.
It’s hard to believe the Cubs were nine games above .500 just 10 weeks ago.
“Kevin Tapani put it better than I ever did explaining our losses,” Riggleman said. “He said we’ve had a total team breakdown. Sammy and Mark and Henry Rodriguez have done a great job. Everyone else has struggled.”
