HI Def, I'm heading out to see the Cubs do Battle with the Astros today... 12:15 start time, I was out and about in downtown last night but the Astros-Cubs game was still on when I got back so I saw the extra innings coverage.
Looks like the Cubs season has really taken a turn South, but at least Sammy is ripping it up. the 'Stros have won their last 8 and are putting on their big division run.
48K plus at the game last night, and today will probably have more.
BTW what's Happened to the Big Hurt...... F thomas has really been in a funk the past 2 years??
Here's some of the coverage of last night's game.
thanks to every one else for indulging my Saturday BaseBall Jones -g- (I'll try to find some stories about the Nittany Boys from the Keystone State for Myth Mext time) -vbg-
September 11, 1999, 12:06 a.m.
Two-homer return powers Astros to 13-inning victory
By CARLTON THOMPSON
Copyright 1999 Houston Chronicle
Superman is among the many names Carl Everett's teammate's call him. He prefers Batman.
The Chicago Cubs must be quite sure he is some invincible combination of the two with a little bit of the Incredible Hulk sprinkled in.
As super heroes always find a way to do, Everett came to the Astros' rescue Friday, belting a two-run homer in the 13th inning to lift his team to a 6-4 victory over the Cubs before 48,879, the third-largest Astrodome crowd of the season.
The attendance was boosted by Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa, who is one home run shy of becoming the first major-leaguer to hit at least 60 homers in consecutive seasons. Sosa was 0-for-6 with three strikeouts.
But the game wasn't void of long home runs. Everett, playing in his first game since straining his right groin on Aug. 28, hit a pair of homers and continued his assault on Cubs pitching.
The switch-hitting center fielder is hitting .500 with six home runs and 19 RBIs against the Cubs this season. Coincidentally, Everett also hit a pair of homers against the Cubs Aug. 7 at Wrigley Field. It was his first game after coming off the disabled list because of a groin injury.
"I wish we could have a two-day DL," Astros manager Larry Dierker quipped. "Carl has been incredible. "The home run to end the game was more dramatic, but the home run at the beginning of the game was a great sign that he was back into the flow."
The flow didn't change in the National League Central, where the Astros maintained their three-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds. Cincinnati beat Florida 4-2. Friday's victory marked only the second time the Astros have won a game when trailing after eight innings. They are 2-48 in those situations.
"What an exciting way to win a game," Dierker said of the Astros' rare comeback victory. "Especially after looking at the scoreboard and seeing that the Reds had won."
Astros starter Scott Elarton put his team in an early hole, allowing three runs on four hits in the second inning. The Astros inched back into the game with single runs in the second and eighth innings, and tied the score with a two-run rally in the ninth.
Meanwhile, the bullpen was nails in relief of Elarton. Trever Miller, Brian Williams, Jay Powell, Doug Henry, Jose Cabrera and Billy Wagner combined for eight scoreless innings.
Wagner worked the 13th inning for his fourth victory, striking out Sosa for the Cubs' final out.
"He challenged me," Sosa said. "I haven't seen to many guys challenge me like that. He got me."
After Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell led off the bottom of the 13th with a single, Everett's challenge was to get him home. A double would have done the trick; maybe even a single had Bagwell swiped second base. Everett chose to make a bigger splash, stroking a hanging forkball from Bobby Ayala into the right field seats.
"To me, home runs are only special in that type of setting," Everett said. "I'm not a guy who really cares to see the home runs. I was just trying to get a good swing on it. He threw me a hanging splitter, and I hit it."
Cubs catcher Jeff Reed drew a one-out walk in the second and scored on Cole Liniak's double. Jose Nieves had a RBI single in the inning, and rookie center fielder Roosevelt Brown doubled home a run. It was the first hit of his major-league career.
The Astros answered in the bottom of the inning with the first of Everett's homers. The Astros have homered in club-record-tying 12 consecutive games. The feat also was accomplished by the 1988 and 1993 teams.
Elarton also surrendered a run on Mark Grace's fifth-inning sacrifice fly before leaving the game. He allowed four runs on six hits in just five innings.
The Astros inched closer to the lead in the eighth when Ricky Gutierrez hit a leadoff triple and scored on Craig Biggio's ground-rule double. Biggio's major-league leading 53rd narrowed the Cubs' lead to two runs before the Astros tied the score with a pair of runs off reliever Terry Adams in the ninth.
Adams relieved Cubs starter Jon Leiber, who held the Astros to two runs on seven hits in eight innings. But the hard luck continued for Leiber, who hasn't won a decision since July 31.
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September 10, 1999, 10:41 p.m.
Cubs' late-season stagger makes Sosa a solot act
By NEIL HOHLFELD
Copyright 1999 Houston Chronicle
This year, the September song for the Chicago Cubs is a solo. Sammy Sosa is a one-man band for the hapless Cubs, who only last season won the wild-card playoff berth in the National League.
Last year, when Sosa was involved in a chase with Mark McGwire for the single-season home-run record, the engaging Cubs right fielder repeatedly said making the playoffs was more important than his personal accomplishments.
Little wonder that Sosa, who went 0-for-6 with three strikeouts as the Cubs lost to the Astros 6-4 in 13 innings Friday night, is not feeling the same excitement as his team limps to the end of the season.
The Cubs have lost 37 of their last 47 games and have the worst record (56-85) in the league. Only Sosa is saving the Cubs from falling off the face of the earth.
The Cubs' eighth loss in their last nine games exemplified the way things have gone this season. They led 4-1 after seven innings and 4-2 entering the ninth. The lead didn't hold, and Carl Everett's second homer of the night ended the game in the 13th.
It's no surprise that while Sosa brings the same intensity to the park for each game, his emotions are different this year.
"It's been a lot different because my situation last year was that I knew when I came to the ballpark every day we had the opportunity to go out there and win something," Sosa said. "We knew that we were fighting to make the playoffs. Pretty much this year -- I'm still coming to the ballpark and playing hard every day and I haven't given up yet -- but the emotion that I had last year isn't the same as it is this year.
"We just haven't been playing the way we're supposed to be playing, and that changes everything right there."
In 141 games, Sosa is hitting .297 with 59 homers and 128 RBIs. One more home run, and he will become the first player in baseball history to hit 60 twice in a season. The closest to reaching the feat was Babe Ruth, who hit 60 in 1927 and 59 in 1921.
With 55 homers this season, McGwire likely will hit 60 in back-to-back seasons, too. The Sammy-and-Mark Show might not be as dramatic as last year, but baseball fans throughout the country are responding. The Cubs are averaging just under 35,000 per home game and more than 34,000 per game on the road, second in the league to St. Louis.
Friday's game drew 48,879, the third-biggest crowd in the Astrodome this season.
There has been some talk-radio discussion that this year's home-run chase has lost some of its appeal. Before last season, the home-run record of 61 by Roger Maris had stood since 1961. With Sosa taking aim on McGwire's total of 70 only one year after it was set, the long-ball mania might be waning.
In the Chicago Tribune, which is owned by the same company that owns the Cubs, a different kind of chart is run each day. Instead of showing the home-run pace Sosa is on, the paper is running a Sammy home-run vs. Cubs' wins chart.
Sosa leads 59-56, and that, too, would be historic. No player has finished a season with more home runs than his team has victories.
Sosa senses he has become almost a final-month sideshow. When he comes to Houston, where the Astros are in a race for yet another division title, the disappointment of being on a last-place team is magnified.
"When you're on a team that has a chance to win, it makes it that much more exciting, everything you do," Sosa said. "I want to win more than anything. I think last year, we had a great team. This time, it's been a struggle for everybody. Right now, we're trying to do the best we can, but it hasn't been easy."
Astros first baseman Jeff Bagwell is in awe of Sosa's power production the last two seasons, but he thinks he can understand what it must be like to hit home runs in a losing effort.
"I would imagine that it's a whole different emotion," said Bagwell, who's third in the NL with 40 homers. "Last year, he could go home after hitting his 60th or hitting a couple out and just be excited that it was a dream season, going to the playoffs and hitting 66 homers or whatever.
"Now, I suppose, even though he's going to get 60 two years in a row and that's never been done before, all the attention is on him hitting home runs and not on his team, because they're losing. You're looking forward to next year already because of your team's standing. But you can only do what you can do. It's like Gracie (Cubs first baseman Mark Grace) said, this just goes to show that one man can't do it all himself."
Still, Sosa can't be blamed for the Cubs' demise this season. Chicago's record when Sosa homers is 28-25. When he doesn't, the mark is 28-60.
"I think the numbers don't lie," Sosa said. "I'm not really thinking about it yet (hitting 60 in consecutive seasons) and I know it's something that no man has ever done before in baseball. Maybe after the season is over, it's something to think about." |
