Despite yet another home run by streaking Sammy Sosa, the Chicago Cubs fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 7-2 Sunday when Bobby Abreu drove in four runs and Tyler Green struck out 10.
Sosa's solo home run in the fourth inning was his 17th this month, extending his own major league record for homers in June and tying Willie Mays' NL mark for home runs in any month.With eight games still left in June, Sosa has a good chance to break the major league record for homers in a single month of 18, set by Detroit's Rudy York in August 1937.
Sosa has hit 30 home runs this season. He has connected 10 times in his last nine games, and 21 times in the last 22 games. After he sent Green's 2-2 pitch into the bleachers, the Wrigley Field crowd gave him a standing ovation and some fans behind the dugout bowed as he returned.
Green (5-4) allowed five hits and two runs in six innings. Steve Trachsel (6-4) gave up four runs and five hits in 4 2-3 innings.
METS 3, MARLINS 2: John Franco escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the eighth inning as New York ended a four-game losing streak.
Al Leiter (9-3), traded from Florida to the Mets in the offseason, won his sixth straight decision. He allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out seven and walking a season-high five.
EXPOS 4, BRAVES 1: Dustin Hermanson pitched five-hit ball for eight innings and the Expos gave Montreal manager Felipe Alou his 500th career victory.
The Expos won two of three from Atlanta, winning their first series against the Braves since July 1994.
Alou passed Gene Mauch for second place on the victory list of Expos managers. Buck Rodgers leads with 520.
PIRATES 8, BREWERS 7: Jose Guillen hit a grand slam as Pittsburgh nearly blew a seven-run lead.
The Brewers, trailing 8-1 in the seventh inning, came back behind Jeff Cirillo. He hit a two-run single in the eighth, and another two-run single with two outs in the ninth.
Milwaukee's three-run rally in the ninth ended, though, when Dave Nilsson fouled out with the bases loaded to Ricardo Rincon, who held on for his ninth save.
CARDINALS 5, DIAMONDBACKS 4: Clint Sodowsky's bases-loaded wild pitch in the eighth inning helped the Cardinals extend their winning streak to four games.
St. Louis, which trailed 4-1 in the sixth, is 7-2 against the expansion Diamondbacks. The Cardinals have won six of seven overall to climb a game above .500 for the first time since June 3.
Mark McGwire, who leads the majors with 33 home runs, went homerless for the third straight game. He walked in the first, struck out in the third, was hit by a pitch in the fifth and singled in the seventh.
ASTROS 3, REDS 1: Pete Schourek pitched six solid innings and Jeff Bagwell drove in a run as Houston handed Cincinnati its eighth straight loss.
The Astros swept the Reds in a three-game series for the first time since 1992. Cincinnati has been swept six times this season.
The Reds, who lost nine in a row in 1996, have also lost eight in a row on the road.
Pete Harnisch (6-3) has lost two straight starts for the first time this season.
ROCKIES 11, DODGERS 6: Dante Bichette homered and drove in five runs for Colorado.
The Rockies used five- and six-run innings to split the four-game series and overcome another big game by Eric Karros. He homered twice and drove in four runs - to go 7-for-17 with four homers and 13 RBIs in the series.
Despite his problems with Karros, Bobby Jones (2-2) pitched the fourth complete game for Colorado this season. He gave up 10 hits, four in a two-run ninth.
PADRES 5, GIANTS 1: Kevin Brown kept up his mastery of the Giants with 8 2-3 impressive innings and the San Diego Padres beat San Francisco for their 12th win in 13 games.
Rebounding from Saturday's 5-2 loss that snapped their club-record tying 11-game winning streak, the Padres got a pair of run-scoring singles from Carlos Hernandez in sending the Giants to their eighth loss in 11 games. Six of those of defeats have come against San Diego.
Tony Gwynn broke out of an 0-for-14 drought - matching the longest of his career - by going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Steve Finley hit a run-scoring triple as the Padres stretched their lead in the NL West to 51/2 games over San Francisco.
American League
RED SOX 3, DEVIL RAYS 1: Pedro Martinez gave up only a fifth-inning triple in eight innings leading the Boston Red Sox.
Martinez (9-2) struck out six and walked two. The right-hander, who pitched a two-hitter against Seattle in April, regrouped after Miguel Cairo's triple to retire the last 11 batters he faced.
Nomar Garciaparra hit his 10th homer off Jason Johnson (2-4) as the Red Sox won for the ninth time in 11 games.
BLUE JAYS 7, ORIOLES 3: Ed Sprague hit two homers and Pat Hentgen pitched seven gritty innings to earn his first win since May 25 as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles.
Sprague went 3-for-3 with a walk and drove in a season-high four runs, giving him 400 RBIs for his career. Shawn Green and Carlos Delgado also homered to help the Blue Jays gain a split of the four-game series.
Hentgen (8-4) threw 128 pitches, allowing eight hits and walking four. The right-hander, who struck out seven and did not have a 1-2-3 inning, was 0-1 in his previous four starts.
TWINS 6, WHITE SOX 1: Mike Morgan took a shutout into the ninth and Brent Gates hit his first career grand slam to lead the Minnesota Twins over the Chicago White Sox.
Morgan (4-2) was three outs away from his first shutout in nearly five years when Mike Caruso homered on the right-hander's first pitch. He allowed four hits, walked two and struck out one. His last shutout came with the Cubs in 1993 against Colorado.
ROYALS 6, TIGERS 5: Jeff Conine hit a three-run double and Hipolito Pichardo won his first game since May 5 as the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers.
Larry Sutton homered and had three RBIs for the Royals, who have won seven of 10. Kansas City took three of four in Detroit to win three straight series for the first time since September 1996.
Pichardo (3-6) gave up for runs and five hits in six innings. He retired the last 11 he faced after Tony Clark and Luis Gonzalez hit back-to-back homers in the third.
MARINERS 10, ATHLETICS 5: Rico Rossy came up from the minors and hit his first homer in nearly five years to lead Seattle.
Edgar Martinez added a two-run homer as the Mariners scored four times in the fifth inning off Mike Oquist (4-4) to take the lead and help Bill Swift (7-4) become the winningest pitcher on Seattle's staff.
Alex Rodriguez went 4-for-5 and scored twice for the Mariners, who won for just the second time in eight games despite making three errors.