Home runs, good pitching help Cubs down Cardinals

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was probably cutting old friend Lou Piniella a break Friday before the Cards and Cubs hooked up Wrigley Field.

"The only time that you would ever say that a team is not in the race is when you're talking about the last six weeks or maybe the last month or if you have somebody that's 40 games over .500," La Russa said.

Within a few hours, the Cubs went out and beat the Cardinals 5-0 behind the pitching of Randy Wells and homers by Tyler Colvin, Geovany Soto and Alfonso Soriano.

Cubs manager Piniella was apprised of La Russa's remarks, but the records are what they are, and the Cubs still are 10 games behind their Gateway Arch rivals in the National League Central.

"Well, look, we just got to play," said Piniella, whose team is 44-53. "Tony's very cautious, and rightfully so. But we just got to play."

The two teams played this one on a sultry St. Louis type of day, with the heat index approaching 100 by game time. Wells, a native of downstate Belleville, sweated through 7 innings of 5-hit ball, running his record to 5-7 with a 4.07 ERA.

"You could feel it; it was pretty miserable out there," Wells said. "Once you got cooled off, you just got back out there, and you're immediately drenched again. Just keeping a grip on the ball was the big key."

The Cubs were fortunate to run into right-hander Jeff Suppan, whom they handily beat earlier this year while he was with the Brewers. Colvin greeted Suppan by hitting his third pitch of the game into the right field bleachers for his 14th homer of the year and his first career leadoff homer.

That drew a wistful response from Soriano, who has 54 leadoff homers.

"Oh, man, it reminded me of when I used to be batting leadoff, a lot of leadoff homers," Soriano said. "That's good for him and good for the team."

Colvin wasn't getting carried away.

"Yeah, I got about 50 more to go to catch up with him," he said. "It was exciting to get that one out of the way. I can see why he likes it so much."

Soto hit a leadoff homer in the fourth, his 14th. Soriano hit his 18th homer, a 2-run line shot into the left-field bleachers in the fifth. The Cubs rounded it out when Ryan Theriot scored from second on Starlin Castro's two-out popup that fell between Suppan and catcher Jason LaRue in the sixth.

Wells took it from there, notching his fourth straight start of at least 7 innings. Sean Marshall finished the final two innings. The dangerous Albert Pujols went 0-for-4, and Matt Holliday was just 1-for-4 against Cubs pitching.

"I can go home with my head a little higher now," said Wells, who was knocked out in the first inning against the Cardinals on May 28 at Wrigley. "On a day like today, you just had to focus and make pitches and keep them off-balance. It's no secret how good they are. They're good hitters over there, so it was beating the heat and just concentrating on making pitches."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p>

<p class="News">Cubs 5, Cardinals 0</p>

<p class="News"><b>Leading man:</b> Rookie Tyler Colvin hit his 14th homer of the year in the first. It was the first leadoff homer of his career. He is the first Cubs left-handed rookie to hit at least 14 homers since Rafael Palmeiro in 1987. </p>

<p class="News"><b>All's Wells:</b> Randy Wells turned in his fifth straight quality start with 7 shuout innings. The Cubs are 34-27 in quality-start games, and the starters have an ERA of 2.16 in those starts. </p>

<p class="News"><b>So far, Soto good:</b> Catcher Geovany Soto has homered in three consecutive games. That's the first time in his career he's done that. For July, Soto is 19-for-32 (.594) with 7 homers and 17 RBI. </p>

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<li><a href="/story/?id=396128">With rookies leading off, Cubs finding some success<span class="date"> [7/23/10]</span></a></li>

<li><a href="/story/?id=396146">Piniella, La Russa managed to stay in the game<span class="date"> [7/23/10]</span></a></li>

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