It's the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Sammy, when Sosa and Mark McGwire went toe-to-toe in one of the most exciting seasons in American sports history chasing after Roger Maris' home run record. All year, we're going to go homer-by-homer on Sosa's 66 longballs, with highlights and info about each. Enjoy.
Aug. 23, 1998 was a great example that hitting only solo home runs don't often get you many Ws - something the present day Cubs are learning the hard way.
Sosa smacked his 50th and 51st homers of the '98 campaign on Aug. 23, but the Cubs still got demolished by the Houston Astros by a 13-3 score. The only other Cubs run was an RBI groundout from Gary Gaetti while Steve Trachsel got shelled to the tune of 7 earned runs in 5 innings.
It ran the 1998 Cubs' record to 71-59, 9.5 games behind the Astros in the NL Central.
Fun Fact: Craig Biggio and Brad Ausmus inflicted most of the damage, combining for 7 hits - including 3 homers - and 11 RBI.