The ball didn’t stop at Waveland Avenue. The whomp that Sammy Sosa put on Marc Wilkins’ 3-2 pitch was so mighty that the ball sailed over the left-field wall and across Waveland before bouncing between the cars parked on Kenmore Avenue.
More important than the home run’s final destination was its effect on the Cubs’ 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. Sosa’s three-run seventh-inning blast broke a 1-1 tie and gave the Cubs some breathing room in a game in which they had squandered several scoring opportunities. Julio Zuleta drove in one more run with an eighth-inning double to the wall in right-center as the Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the Pirates with their fifth straight victory.
At 8-4, they share the National League Central lead with the Houston Astros. They’re four games over .500 for the first time since June 16, 1999. The series sweep was their first since July, when they took three in a row from the Phillies, who are here Monday for the first Wrigley Field night game of the season.
Starter Kerry Wood labored with his control, throwing 115 pitches in just six innings of work.
“I had a good fastball today,” he said. “I had no curve. I found that out in the first inning and a half. I couldn’t throw it for strikes.”
Relying primarily on a mitt-popping fastball, a changeup and “an occasional cutter,” Wood gave up only one run on three hits and struck out 10, the 13th time in 52 career starts he has reached double digits in strikeouts.
“I don’t expect to have all four pitches working for me every time I go out,” Wood said.
Wood left with the game tied 1-1, and rookie Courtney Duncan was the beneficiary of Sosa’s homer. Duncan earned his first major-league victory with 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Mike Fyrhie got a double-play ball from Derek Bell to get the Cubs out of a two-on, one-out predicament in the eighth, and Kyle Farnsworth pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.
Pirates starter Todd Ritchie matched Wood’s performance, also giving up one run in six innings. With the bases loaded and one out in the third, he got Sosa to foul out to the catcher, then struck out Todd Hundley to send the Cubs away empty.
“It was a 3-2 sinker inside, up and in,” Sosa said of the pitch that retired him. He was 1-for-10 with four strikeouts in the series before his homer. “They don’t make that many mistakes,” he said. “They pitched me real well.”
Ritchie also drove in Pittsburgh’s only run with a third-inning single off Wood.
“I’ve got to stop the pitchers from driving in runs against me,” Wood said.
Eric Young tied the game in the fifth with a first-pitch home run to left.
“I felt he was going to groove me one to get ahead, and I took advantage of it,” Young said.
