Sosa Adds to the Aches Perez, Dodgers Are Feeling

As is his habit, Sammy Sosa stood out Tuesday night, although he was not the only Chicago Cub to play well. Likewise, Dodger pitcher Carlos Perez dangled in the spotlight, even if he deserved company.

Perez, though, stuck out like a sore thigh.

By the time Sosa was done clubbing and Perez was finished being clobbered, the Cubs had a 10-5 victory that left the Dodgers with a 2-3 homestand with one game left.

For Sosa, it was flashes of 1998, when he hit 66 home runs and, along with Mark McGwire, had the nation’s attention.

He homered and had a run-scoring double that had many of the 30,470 at Dodger Stadium cheering. Still, those were just two of seven extra-base hits by the Cubs.

Three were by shortstop Jose Hernandez, who homered, tripled and doubled, driving in three runs.

Perez, meanwhile, gave up three home runs in six-plus innings. Reliever Antonio Osuna followed and four of the five batters he faced scored, putting the game out of the Dodgers’ reach. But it was Perez who was booed.

Not even Raul Mondesi, who had two home runs for the second consecutive game, could get Perez off the hook.

This was his first start since the mysterious thigh injury last Wednesday, which forced him to miss a start against Montreal. Perez had swelling around his right knee caused by an unknown source--possibly the Astroturf at Olympic Stadium, he said.

It fueled speculation that the injury happened after a late-night outing with former Expo teammates, which Perez denied. Dodger officials have decided to let the matter die. . . . sort of.

“We got him off the turf. . . . the Canadian turf,” Manager Davey Johnson said before the game. “He pitched very well 10 or 11 days ago. We’ll watch him closely, but I think his knee is fine.”

His pitching wasn’t. Not even natural grass could help him out. Perez (1-4) gave up six runs for the third time in six starts. His control was fine, with 43 strikes out of 68 pitches. Far too many never reached catcher Todd Hundley.

Oh, Perez got 13 outs on ground balls through six innings. But the balls that went in the air went a long way.

Hernandez broke a scoreless game with a towering two-run homer to left on a 3-and-0 pitch with two out in the third. Mark Grace followed by belting a 3-and-1 pitch high off the right-field foul pole.

In the sixth, Hernandez tripled off the center-field fence and scored on Grace’s sacrifice fly. Sosa then homered to right for a 5-2 lead.

It was Sosa’s eighth home run, his fourth in the last seven games.

Still, he is far the National League leader, that being Mondesi. He hit two home runs in a 4-3 Dodger victory Monday and hammered the Cubs again Tuesday. It was his third game this season that he has hit two home runs and gave him 13, one more than Arizona’s Jay Bell.

“The best thing about Mondy is his expressions,” Johnson said. “He enjoys playing baseball and it shows in the way he plays. He has a boyish glee.”

He was about the only thing for the Dodgers to smile about.

Perez had hardly found a seat in the seventh when Osuna made matters worse. His wild pitch allowed one run and he compounded that by giving up a run-scoring single to relief pitcher Rodney Myers. The five-run inning gave the Cubs a 10-4 lead.

Rookie pitcher Kyle Farnsworth benefited, but hardly earned it. He lasted five innings and gave up four runs.

Farnsworth, who was making his third major league start, caused some of his own problems. He walked Gary Sheffield and Mondesi to start the fourth. Both scored when Eric Karros hit a drive that short-hopped the center-field fence for a double.

He left after giving up three consecutive hits, one a Mondesi home run, in the sixth.

Still, because of Sosa and Perez, Farnsworth is 2-0 as a major league pitcher.