Nearly a week into the season, Sammy Sosa is still putting up zeros. Surprisingly, so is the Pittsburgh Pirates' bullpen.
Three Pirate relievers gave up one hit over seven shutout innings Saturday, and Ed Sprague hit a grand slam in the Pirates' six-run fifth inning for his first National League homer, in a 9-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh.
Sprague's homer helped rally the Pirates from a 3-0 deficit created by Tyler Houston's three-run homer in the second against Francisco Cordova.
Pirate Manager Gene Lamont went to three left-handers--Scott Sauerbeck, Jeff Wallace and Jason Christiansen--to shut out the Cubs after Cordova lasted only two innings.
In their last three games, Pirate relievers have given up only four hits and one run in 16 innings.
Five Pirate relievers have combined for 10 shutout innings in the first two games of the three-game Cub series, even as Lamont was changing roles by deciding not to use Loiselle as the closer.
"They just shut us down," said Cub Manager Jim Riggleman, whose team has scored more than three runs only once while starting 2-3.
The Cubs' problems don't start at the top, but rather in the No. 3 hole. Sosa's homer slump continued as he went 0 for 4. After hitting a major league-high 12 home runs during spring training, Sosa is batting .059 with only one extra-base hit during the regular season.
"It's going to come," Sosa said. "It's not going to be like this all year. Today I felt more comfortable. . . . It's early. As a team, sometimes when the main guy is struggling everybody is going to follow. When I get hot, I'm going to get hot for a long time."
San Diego 11, San Francisco 1--John Vander Wal and Jim Leyritz hit consecutive home runs in a five-run third inning at San Francisco as the Padres sent the Giants to their first loss.
Wally Joyner also homered, and Dave Magadan and Damian Jackson hit two-run doubles for the Padres, who were not bothered by a steady rain that fell throughout the game. San Francisco had won its first five games, its best start since 1987.
Andy Ashby (1-1), shelled for six runs while lasting only one inning in a season-opening loss to the Colorado Rockies, gave up six hits in seven innings. He gave up a fifth-inning home run to reliever Felix Rodriguez--his first major league hit in four career at-bats.
Philadelphia 5, Florida 2--Curt Schilling gave up five hits in eight innings and Scott Rolen hit his third home run for the Phillies at Miami.
