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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
HOUSTON (AP) -- What could have been a bad break for Scott
Elarton turned into a lucky bounce.
Elarton won his fifth straight decision and reliever Joe
Slusarski escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning Monday
night to give the Houston Astros a 5-4 win over the Chicago Cubs.
Sammy Sosa hit his major league-leading 43rd home run for the
Cubs, connecting for the fifth time in four games. Despite the
457-foot shot off the lights in left field, Chicago lost its
season-high sixth in a row.
"I was not even close to my good stuff," Elarton said. "I
couldn't throw it where I wanted to. I just had to battle through
it."
In the fifth inning, Elarton tried to field a sharply hit
grounder by Damon Buford. The ball glanced off Elarton's ring
finger and deflected into a double play.
"I was a little scared at first and I didn't want to even look
at it," Elarton said. "It swelled up real quickly. I thought I
had broken it, but it turned out to be just a bruise."
Elarton then struck out the next four batters as he retired
eight hitters in a row overall.
"I couldn't even feel it," Elarton said. "I normally need
that finger to throw my changeup, but I even threw some changeups
then and it felt all right."
Elarton (14-4) gave up three runs and eight hits in eight
innings and left with a 5-3 lead.
"It was a gutty performance," Astros manager Larry Dierker
said. "I knew he just didn't have it from the start. But he kept
on hanging in there and eventually he started throwing pretty
well."
Octavio Dotel took over to start the ninth and walked the bases
loaded with no outs.
Slusarski got Ricky Gutierrez to ground into a double play, with
one run scoring, and retired Mark Grace on a fly ball to earn his
second save.
"I know when we walk the bases loaded, bad things happen,"
Cubs manager Don Baylor said. "We had our chances but we didn't
get it done."
Sosa's solo homer in the fifth made it 3-3. The shot tied for
the longest ever at Enron Field, matching Montreal's Andy Tracy.
"I was running the bases," Sosa said. "I really didn't watch
it go out. I have too much respect for the other team to watch
it."
Richard Hidalgo hit his 32nd homer for Houston. Tony Eusebio
extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a third-inning single.
Kevin Tapani (8-10) gave up five runs on six hits in six
innings.
The Cubs went ahead 2-0 in the fourth when Damon Buford doubled
and Willie Greene homered. Greene became the first Chicago player
to homer other than Sosa since Aug. 8.
Julio Lugo led off the bottom half with a double and scored on
Tim Bogar's single. One out later, Hidalgo homered.
Astros scored twice in the sixth on Hidalgo's sacrifice fly and
Moises Alou's RBI single.
Game notes
Jeff Bagwell's hitting streak ended at 18 games. He went
0-for-3 with a walk. ... The Cubs' losing streak is their longest
since a six-game skid last Sept. 7-12. ... Greene's home run was
his first since June 16. ... Alou is hitting .439 (18-for-41) in
his last 11 games.
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