Mets free agent acquisition Steve Trachsel becomes the first pitcher in franchise history to give up four home runs in an inning, pitching himself out of the starting rotation in the process (one day later, he’ll be off the roster altogether, off to Norfolk for a three-week Triple A stint). To be fair, the Met bullpen does not exactly cover itself in glory either, with Rick White and John Franco each contributing 4 runs to San Diego’s 15-run total; an uncharacteristically economical Franco accomplishes all this in one third of an inning. The one Met bright spot is the performance turned in by a newcomer assigned mop-up duty in the 9th, super sub Desi Relaford, who moves over from SS to make the only mound appearance of his major league career. Sporting a tailing change-up and a fastball, which at 91 MPH is about 5 MPH faster than anything Trachsel was able to muster, Desi fans the opposing pitcher, then induces two consecutive Padres to fly out to the deepest part of the park.

Chicago outfielder Sammy Sosa becomes the thirty-third major leaguer to reach 400 career homers when he goes deep off Houston’s Shane Reynolds at Wrigley Field. The popular Dominican outfielder has hit 371 homers as a Cub, putting him third on the all-time franchise list behind Ernie Banks (512) and Billy Williams (392).

Rickey Henderson leads off with a home run, extending his major-league record for leadoff home runs to 79. This is more than the combined total for the #2 and #3 players on the list: Brady Anderson (44), and Bobby Bonds(35).

The Brewers pound out 22 hits as they defeat the Phillies, 14 – 10. The Brewskis almost blow an 8-run lead before going ahead in the 10th inning on Richie Sexson’s double. Tyler Houston gets five hits, including a double, for Milwaukee, while Devon White hits a grand slam.

Alex Rodriguez becomes the fifth-youngest big leaguer to hit his 200th career home run, at 25 years and 289 days. Mel Ott accomplished the feat in 1934 at the youngest age (25 years, 144 days).

Carlos Delgado hits his 204th home run in a Toronto Blue Jays uniform, surpassing Joe Carter in the all-time Blue Jays career leader in homers.

Major League Baseball is ordered by arbitrator Alan Symonette to reinstate nine of the 22 “resigning” umpires let go two years before, and to grant back-pay for the time missed. The order also states that veteran umpires Frank Pulli and Terry Tata do not need to retire after the season, as previously planned.

Ramón Arano plays in a Mexican League game for the 6th different decade, the only player to do so. The 62-year-old pitcher allows one run in 3 1/3 innings for the Veracruz Eagle and leaves with a 1-1 score against the Nuevo Laredo Owls.

After another dreadful appearance yesterday in which he threw five wild pitches, the Cardinals send promising young fireballer Rick Ankiel to Triple-A Memphis to work on overcoming his unexplainable lack of control. The left-hander has walked 25 batters in 24 innings this season.