Cubs armed and dangerous in 3-2 win

The question was a great one.

Why in the world do opposing teams insist on running on Alfonso Soriano?

"I don't know why, but I'm happy they do because that gets me excited," said the Cubs' left fielder, who came into Wednesday night's game against Cincinnati with 15 outfield assists.

Make that 16.

And none bigger than the one he recorded in the eighth inning. With the game tied 2-2 and the Reds threatening, Soriano charged a one-hop single off the bat of Brandon Phillips and uncorked his trademark sidearm fade to easily nail Norris Hopper at the plate.

That set the stage for a wacky Cubs comeback and a 3-2 victory that put the North Siders back atop the National League Central by 1 game courtesy of Milwaukee's 5-4 loss in 10 innings to Houston.

"If there was a must-win game for us, truthfully this was it," said a spent Cubs manager Lou Piniella.

How they finally won it, though, won't really go down as Baseball 101, but no one's complaining.

Here's how it went down:

With one out in the eighth, late-inning sparkplug Ryan Theriot lined a shot to right field, and when Ken Griffey Jr. momentarily bobbled it, Theriot sped for second and made it with a head-first slide.

The next batter, Derrek Lee, followed with a hit to right. On the play, Theriot rounded third and watched as Griffey came up lame after fielding the ball, eventually underhanding a throw to second before falling to the turf writhing in pain.

"To tell you the truth, I knew I threw it but that's about it," said Griffey, who suffered a lower abdominal strain.

Theriot watched all of the action unfold, but decided to remain at third. It wasn't too popular a move with the 40,805, or with his skipper.

"Theriot has to keep his head up," Pinella said. "The throw can't come to third."

The Cubs' shortstop said he was just trying to play it safe.

"I'm picking up (third-base coach Mike) Quade and once he held me up I stopped and turned to look to find the ball, that's when I saw the underhand throw," Theriot said. "I tried to restart, but you know what? I'm not going to get thrown out at home with one out.

"To be totally honest with you, I have all the confidence in the world that whoever comes up is going to get the job done. I'd already had one risky maneuver in that inning and luckily it worked out. I just wanted to make sure that I was on third with one out."

Stay or go, in the end it didn't matter because he scored on pinch hitter Matt Murton's liner to left that Adam Dunn trapped and eventually turned into a 7-6-3 force of Lee.

"I did catch it, yes," Dunn said before going off on the conditions at Wrigley. "This outfield is so dangerous. I'm surprised more people don't get injured out there. It's as bad as there is. It's worse than playing in a parking lot."

Bob Howry, who pitched a scoreless eighth, stayed on to finish up the game in place of regular closer Ryan Dempster, out with dehydration and flu-like symptoms.

"I told Bob before the game that we were going to need him, and he came up big," Piniella said.

Now it's one day of rest before the race to the playoffs continues.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to do the least I possibly can," Piniella said.

Cubs 3, Reds 2

At the plate: Alfonso Soriano hit a solo home run in the first inning, the ninth time he's led off the game with a homer this season and a franchise record. Soriano was tied with Rick Monday, who went deep leading off a game eight times in 1976.

In the field: Take another bow, Soriano. The left fielder threw out Norris Hopper at home in the eighth inning for his 16th assist of the season, the most assists for the Cubs since right fielder Sammy Sosa also had 16 in 1997.

-- Scot Gregor