Sosa Hits Two More, but Cardinals Win

The home-run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire got a little more interesting on Sunday, as Sosa hit two two-run homers in his first two at-bats to pull within one of McGwire for the major league lead.

McGwire has 47 homers, Sosa 46.

But Chicago Cub Manager Jim Riggleman, who on Saturday said he wasn’t interested in the McGwire-Sosa home run derby unless a Sosa homer provides his team with a victory, wasn’t too keyed up on Sunday, either.

That’s because the Cubs lost to McGwire and the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5, on Craig Paquette’s two-out, two-run single in the ninth.

McGwire, who did not homer on Sunday, doubled and had a sacrifice fly against Steve Trachsel, the pitcher who surrendered No. 62 last September during the great home run race.

Both McGwire and Sosa had three homers in the sold-out, three-game series at Busch Stadium. McGwire caught up with the pace from his record, 70-homer season last year on Saturday, and Sosa caught up with his pace Sunday.

New York 12, San Francisco 5--By going the distance at San Francisco, Kenny Rogers pitched the Mets’ first complete game of the season--stopping their drought one short of the major league record--and Robin Ventura hit his third grand slam of the season.

Despite giving up 12 hits, Rogers (2-0) ended the Mets’ string without a complete game at 139, one shy of the record set by the Angels earlier this year. The last Met pitcher to go the distance was Al Leiter on Sept. 4.

The Mets’ Mike Piazza homered for the third straight day, and Edgardo Alfonzo, who had missed two games while attending his uncle’s funeral in Venezuela, homered and drove in four runs.

Philadelphia 9, Cincinnati 3--Ron Gant homered, doubled and drew one of two bases-loaded walks during a four-run sixth inning as the Phillies won at Cincinnati.

The Phillies won for only the second time in eight games, and the Reds lost for only the sixth time in 21 games.

Arizona 4, Milwaukee 0--Omar Daal pitched his second career shutout for his 12th victory of the season as the Diamondbacks salvaged the final game of a three-game series with the Brewers at Phoenix.

Matt Williams and Steve Finley hit home runs off the Brewers’ Bill Pulsipher (3-3) as Arizona boosted its lead over second-place San Francisco in the NL West back to 7 1/2 games.

Daal (12-6), 9-2 in his last 16 starts, earned his second complete game of the season.

Pittsburgh 2, Houston 0--Shane Reynolds struck out 14, the most by an Astro pitcher this season, but the Pirates’ Todd Ritchie was the winning pitcher at Houston.

Rookie Warren Morris broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning with a solo homer off Reynolds (14-9). Al Martin hit a home run in the ninth.

Ritchie (11-8) allowed six hits and was pulled after giving up a leadoff single in the ninth to Russ Johnson.

Colorado 8-12, Montreal 2-4--Todd Helton’s second homer of the day, a three-run shot, powered the Rockies to a sweep of the Expos in a day-night doubleheader at Denver.

Helton’s two-run homer and Edgard Clemente’s bases-loaded triple keyed a five-run eighth inning in the opener, rallying the Rockies to an 8-2 victory.

The night game was the makeup of a game postponed on April 21 because of the Columbine High School shooting.

In the first game, John Thomson (1-5), just recalled from the minors, pitched seven strong innings for the victory. Second-game starter Pedro Astacio (13-9) struck out 11 in eight strong innings.

It was Astacio’s first start since being arrested on a third-degree assault charge for allegedly striking his estranged wife on Wednesday.