Sosa's HR Wasted In Cubs Loss

Marquis Grissom even overshadowed Sammy Sosa for a day.

Grissom homered twice and drove in a career-high six runs to offset Sosa's major league-leading 29th home run in the Milwaukee Brewers' 17-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday night.

Grisson hit a sacrifice fly in a four-run first inning, a two-run homer in the third, an RBI single in the fourth and a two-run homer in the sixth.

Milwaukee's 17 runs and 21 hits both were season highs. The Brewers are batting .327 (109-for-333) in their last nine games, and have homered in 22 of their last 24 games.

Â"We were aggressive from the get-go and kept it up,Â" Milwaukee manager Phil Garner said. Â"You're never comfortable in this ballpark but there was a point when it seemed like we would keep scoring no matter what they did.Â"

Steve Woodard (9-5) won his fifth straight decision, giving up six runs and seven hits in seven innings.

Â"The offense really made it easy,Â" Woodard said.

Kevin Tapani (6-4) took the loss in his shortest outing of the year. Tapani gave up seven runs and eight hits over 2 2-3 innings.

Grissom's previous high for RBIs was five, which he did twice, most recently last July 9, also against Chicago.

Â"Marquis had a great night,Â" Garner said. Â"I left him in there (in the ninth), trying to get five hits. Even the ball he hit for an out (sacrifice fly) was tattooed.Â"

Sosa homered in his third consecutive game in the sixth, a two-run shot, to pull the Cubs within 13-5. One out later, Glenallen Hill followed with his second homer of the game and 11th this season, but the Cubs lost for the 14th time in their last 18.

Â"I can't rant and rave because we got beat 17-6,Â" Cubs manager Jim Riggleman said. Â"I can't act like I'm mad because they whipped us. They're a good hitting ballclub. Give credit to them.Â"

Dave Nilsson hit a three-run omer, his 17th, and Jeromy Burnitz had a pair of RBI doubles for the Brewers, who won for the seventh time in their last nine. Jeff Cirillo and Jose Valentin each had three hits.

The Brewers opened a 4-0 lead in the first on an RBI single by Rafael Belliard, an RBI double by Burnitz and a pair of sacrifice flies by Nilsson and Grissom.

Sosa hit into a double play with the bases loaded to drive in a run in the first and Henry Rodriguez added an RBI single to pull within 4-2.

Â"I was worried about Sosa no matter what the score,Â" Garner said. Â"You hate to see him up there with men on. Who knows, that double play might have turned the game around.Â"

Valentin scored on Mark Loretta's grounder in the second to make it 5-2.

Grissom's first homer with two out in the third made it 7-2. Tapani then gave up a single to Geoff Jenkins before he was removed.

Â"I got the ball up tonight. That makes it a lot easier for them to hit it,Â" Tapani said.

The Brewers batted around in the fourth against Dan Serafini. Burnitz hit an RBI double, Grissom and Jenkins each hit an RBI singles and Valentin added an RBI double to open an 11-2 lead.

Hill hit a two-out solo homer in the fourth.

Grissom hit his seventh homer and second of the game off Rodney Myers with one out in the sixth.

Notes: It was the second time Grissom has hit two homers in a game. He also did so Sept. 26 at Los Angeles. ... This is the first time this season Sosa has homered in three straight games. ... It was Tapani's shortest start since he went just 2 1-3 innings last July 9 at Milwaukee. ... The Cubs dropped to 9-17 in June. ... There has been only one game played between the Cubs and Brewers in which there wasn't a home run hit April 17 at County Stadium. ... Milwaukee has hit 41 home runs in June. The last time the Brewers hit at least 40 in a month was June 1982 when the club had 47.

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