Sojo’s Stab Pierces Hearts Of The Angels

With one swat in the seventh inning, Luis Sojo broke his bat - and the hearts and hopes of the California Angels along with it.

“That hit by Luis is the one that broke our hearts,” Angel Chili Davis said of the key sequence in the Seattle Mariners’ 9-1 demolition of California in the Kingdome Monday.

“We had kept it close, but it all came apart on that one,” Davis said.

During the M’s magical march into the playoffs, Sojo has been perhaps one of the lesser luminaries.

Monday, though, he singled sharply to center in the third inning, then came up in the seventh with teammates on every base.

Vince Coleman had just rocked a liner into short right field that a charging Tim Salmon fielded at his shoe-tops to keep the Mariners in place.

But Sojo then stabbed at a Langston pitch, and when his bat broke, the ball flew wildly up the first-base line.

Angel J.T. Snow dived for it and “I thought he got it,” Sojo said. “But when I saw he didn’t, I said to myself, ‘just keep running, baby.”’

Ahead of him, Mike Blowers and Tino Martinez scored as the ball skipped into the area of the Angels’ bullpen and appeared to nestle under a bench out there.

It sent Salmon fishing around for the ball. “All I could see was arms and legs and everything else flying around,” Salmon said.

Sojo, meanwhile, was chugging to third and Joey Cora was revving it home from first. Salmon’s throw home, though, was cut off by Langston, who misfired to the plate.

“Yeah, you might wonder why it was cut off because it seemed like it was on line,” Salmon said. “I thought maybe they had a play to make somewhere other than at home.”

As the ball scooted off to the wall, Sojo completed his circuit and slid across the plate.

Blowers had a first-hand view.

“I’d scored and I was trying to let the guys know if they needed to slide or not,” Blowers said. “When the umpire called Luis safe, I just threw my hands in the air and kind of lost it for a second.

“I looked around and kind of enjoyed the crowd,” he added. “They were going nuts, and in the dugout, everybody was screaming and yelling. It took some time before we settled down and realized we had two more innings to go.”

Sojo said the play, simply, was “the biggest thing that’s ever happened in my life.”

, DataTimes