CHICAGO (AP) — No cork or other foreign material was found in any of the 76 bats confiscated from Sammy Sosa’s locker and X-rayed by baseball officials.

The bats were taken from the Chicago Cubs’ locker room during the game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday night. Cork was found in Sosa’s bat when it shattered after he grounded out in the first inning of the Cubs’ 3-2 victory.

“We believe the X-ray process was sufficient to determine the state of those bats, and we’re very confident all of those bats were clean and had no foreign substances within them,” Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner’s office, said Wednesday.

“We’re happy with that, and that is consistent with Sammy’s explanation of the incident last night.”

Alderson said security person-nel took Sosa's bats "several innings" after the cork was discovered. Alderson said he was confident all of Sosa's bats were impounded.

There is a possibility that Sosa’s bats in the Hall of Fame could be examined, Alderson added. The Hall has five of Sosa’s bats, including the one he presented in mid-April, more than a week after he hit his 500th home run.

Sosa said he accidentally pulled out a bat he uses to put on home run displays for fans in batting practice, and swore that he’s never done anything illegal. If he was trying to cheat, he said, why wouldn’t he have tried to grab the bat before anyone saw it?

“I would have come back to the plate and picked up all the pieces, don’t you think?” he said Wednesday. “I didn’t pick it up. I went to the dugout. So you guys can see the difference.”

But that doesn’t mean he’s off the hook. Bob Watson, baseball’s vice president in charge of discipline, will decide what — if any — punishment Sosa will face. He’s expected at Wrigley Field this morning to do interviews before returning to New York to make a decision.