Cubs’ Sosa Doubles Up on Homer Hitting

Ernie Banks never did it. Neither did Hack Wilson or Billy Williams. None of the Chicago Cubs’ members of the Hall of Fame have hit two home runs in an inning.

Sammy Sosa did it Thursday at Chicago.

Sosa homered off Jeff Tabaka to lead off the seventh inning and then capped an eight-run effort with a two-run shot off Jim Dougherty in the Cubs’ 13-1 victory over the Houston Astros.

Sosa has six homers in his last six games and 15 for the season.

“Sammy’s made some nice adjustments from when he was struggling a little bit,” Cub Manager Jim Riggleman said. “He came out of that and continued to show his maturity as a player by handling that situation well.

“I think he’s being rewarded for that now with some great at-bats. He’s really focusing on trying to stay on the ball and hit the ball to right field, and good things are happening for him.”

Good things are happening for Amaury Telemaco too.

Telemaco, called up from triple-A Iowa on May 14, pitched one-hit ball over seven innings to win his major league debut.

“I did what I was doing in the minor leagues--throw strikes and get ahead of the batter,” Telemaco, 22, said. “I wasn’t nervous at all. I expected to pitch the way I did today. It’s baseball.”

Riggleman was impressed.

“I didn’t know what to expect other than I’ve heard a lot of good things about him,” he said.

Chicago’s Leo Gomez hit a three-run homer in the second inning and two more runs scored in the third when Craig Biggio threw a potential double-play grounder by Gomez into Houston’s dugout.

Scott Servais also had a two-run homer in the seventh inning and Mark Grace drove in three runs with a double.

And then there was Sosa.

“I’m real happy to do it and be the first Cub in history to do it,” Sosa said. “I got lucky because there have been a lot of good major league ballplayers here and nobody ever did it.”

New York 6, San Diego 3--Pete Harnisch, playing while appealing an eight-game suspension for fighting, pitched seven strong innings at San Diego to help New York end a four-game losing streak.

Harnisch (3-2), suspended by NL President Len Coleman on Tuesday for his part in Sunday’s brawl between the Mets and Cubs, held the Padres to five hits and one earned run.

New York got six runs and 12 hits in 5 1/3 innings off Joey Hamilton (6-3).

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Milwaukee 3, Chicago 2--John Jaha’s solo home run in the eighth inning at Milwaukee broke a 2-2 tie and made a loser of Kevin Tapani (3-3), who had struck out the previous four batters.

Chicago’s Tony Phillips, scratched from the starting lineup after arriving late to the ballpark, apparently because of difficulty with a fan in a fight the night before, walked as a pinch-hitter to lead off the ninth.

Phillips was picked off by Mike Fetters, though television replays apparently showed that the call by umpire Chuck Meriwether was in error.

Phillips argued and had to be restrained by first base coach Ron Jackson, who also yelled at Meriwether. Crew chief Jim Evans raced over from second base to calm down Phillips, putting his arms around him. Phillips twisted away from Evans and finally calmed down, then was booed again as he left the field.

“It’s not been a good 24 hours,” Phillips said.

Minnesota 4, Toronto 1--Brad Radke (4-5) won for the first time since April 11, shutting out the Blue Jays on four hits through seven innings at Minneapolis and retiring 13 of 14 batters in one stretch.

Radke was removed in the eighth after giving up consecutive singles to Alex Gonzalez and Otis Nixon leading off the inning. Eddie Guardado relieved and gave up one run on Carlos Delgado’s double-play grounder.

Dave Stevens pitched the ninth inning for his eighth save.