Sammy Sosa did not hit career home run No. 496 Thursday night.
Sosa singled twice, walked three times, scored once and made a diving catch of a line drive in right to retire the leadoff man in the Cincinnati Reds’ four-run seventh inning.
But none of these deeds, nor 22 Cubs hits, were enough to prevent the Reds from rallying from deficits of 5-0 and 6-1 before winning 15-12 in an exhibition of shoddy pitching and wasteful hitting.
Fred McGriff’s single drove home Corey Patterson to break an 11-11 tie and put the Cubs ahead 12-11 in the eighth. But in the bottom of the inning, Kyle Farnsworth’s wild pitch with two outs brought in the tying run.
Farnsworth then served up a 3-2 pitch that Todd Walker smashed for the three-run double to left that provided the deciding runs.
A crowd of 16,918 fans watched the Cubs strand 15 runners in the game that lasted five minutes short of four hours.
“A rough game,” manager Bruce Kimm said. “What was the score? 15-12? And there could have been a few more runs.
“I’ll disagree with anyone who says this team does not play hard. We had a lot of good at-bats. We just couldn’t hold them.”
Five of the Cubs’ first seven runs scored on hits by September call-ups. Third baseman Kevin Orie put the Cubs ahead 2-0 with his RBI single in the Cubs’ five-run first inning. Catcher Mike Mahoney had the big blow in the inning, a bases-loaded double over center fielder Ruben Mateo’s head.
In the fifth inning, second baseman Bobby Hill singled home Orie to make the score 7-4.
The trouble was that the Reds kept bopping home runs. Russell Branyan and Wily Mo Pena connected back-to-back off starter Steve Smyth in the second when the Reds scored three runs and trimmed the lead to 6-4. Jose Guillen’s homer cut the lead to 7-5 in the home half of the fifth.
Neither starter lasted very long. Cincinnati’s Shawn Estes departed after he faced two batters in the second. Hill doubled and Patterson singled him home for a 6-1 lead. Estes opened the five-run Cubs first by walking Hill, hitting Patterson with a pitch and walking Sosa to load the bases.
Smyth lasted two innings. He yielded five hits and four runs.
“I think Smyth’s problem was location,” Kimm said. “His pitches looked right down the middle.”
The Cubs totaled 14 hits in the first six innings but stranded nine runners.
The Cubs paid for the wasted opportunities in the home half of the sixth when the Reds scored four runs off Will Cunnane and took a 9-7 lead. If Sosa had not made his diving catch, the Reds would have scored more.
The Cubs tied it 9-9 in the seventh and had the bases loaded with nobody out. But McGriff popped out on a 3-0 count and the next two batters failed.
