NEW YORK, 18 April 2004 — Moises Alou and Sammy Sosa both homered in the bottom of the ninth inning to lead the Chicago Cubs to a wild 11-10 home win over the Cincinnati Reds in National League play on Friday.
The teams combined for eight home runs in an eventful game that featured both managers being ejected well before the dramatic ending. Sosa’s home run was the 512th of his career, tying Hall of Famer Ernie Banks for the club record.
Just seconds later, Alou’s homer ended the game. Reds closer Danny Graves (0-1) gave up both of the home runs as the Cubs celebrated wildly when Alou crossed the plate to wind up with four hits in the game, including another homer, and three RBI.
Aramis Ramirez homered for the third straight day for the Cubs and had five RBI, one off his career high.
Todd Hollandsworth also homered for the Cubs, who had 16 hits.
Reds manager Dave Miley was ejected in the fourth inning for arguing balls and strikes and Chicago manager Dusty Baker got thrown out in the seventh inning for arguing over a line-up card dispute.
Joe Borowski (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth then picked up the win.
D’Angelo Jimenez, Willy Mo Pena and Ken Griffey Jr all homered for the Reds.
In other games, Jim Thome went four-for-four with a homer to lead the Philadelphia Phillies past the reeling Montreal Expos 4-2. Pat Burrell also homered for the Phillies in their first night game in their new ballpark.
Eric Milton allowed two runs over six innings for the win. Montreal is 2-8 to start the season. The Pittsburgh Pirates scored seven runs in the eighth inning and then hung on to beat the New York Mets 7-6. Kip Wells (2-1) pitched seven strong innings for the win. Tom Glavine also pitched seven good innings for the Mets but Ober Moreno (0-1) allowed three runs on three hits in relief in the eighth and failed to get an out. Jack Wilson had two hits and drove in a run for Pittsburgh. Eli Marrero and Chipper Jones both hit two-run homers as the Atlanta Braves edged the Florida Marlins 5-4.
In Houston, Roy Oswalt tossed a three-hitter for his second career shutout as the Astros blanked the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0.
Oswalt struck out 10 and retired 17 of the last 18 batters he faced, while walking none. Richard Hidalgo drove in one of Houston’s runs and also tripled. Randy Johnson pitched a two-hitter for his first win of the season as the Arizona Diamondbacks blanked the San Diego Padres 5-0. Johnson added a two-run double for the D-Backs, while striking out eight and walking one in his 36th career shutout. Jake Peavy (0-1) took the loss.
