Cubs please home crowd

The Cubs provided a sensory overload of playoff atmosphere in Saturday's 9-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

With a cool breeze ushering in autumn and a charged-up crowd of 41,271 cheering everything large and small, this game had the look, feel, taste, sight and sound of postseason baseball.

"Yeah, it really was," marveled a hoarse Cubs manager Lou Piniella. “If you can't get excited about this, you're just not an excitable person.”

The Cubs' ninth victory in 11 games improved them to 82-73, assured them of a wining season and kept their first-place position in the National League Central secure for another day.

After spending most of this season in a severe power drought, the Cubs turned on the pop again Saturday, hitting 4 home runs for a second straight game, with Alfonso Soriano getting 2 and Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez each contributing 1.

"This time of the year, that's what you hope for, and that's exactly what we're getting," Piniella said. "These are big-game people."

The other interesting story to watch is how Piniella is managing these games. To wit:

• With starting pitcher Rich Hill in trouble in the second inning, Piniella had his bullpen up and ready.

• For the second straight day, Piniella began making defensive switches in the middle innings, with Jacque Jones going to center field in the sixth. In the seventh, Piniella put rookie Sam Fuld in right, and Fuld came up with a highlight-reel catch and throw double play that inning, crashing into the wall to grab Nyjer Morgan's drive and then doubling Nate McLouth off first base.

• Piniella didn't fool around with his bullpen. Carlos Marmol worked the sixth inning, the resurgent Scott Eyre the seventh, followed by Bob Howry and Ryan Dempster.

Playoff-tested infielder Mark DeRosa noticed it all.

"Oh, yeah," DeRosa said. "It seems like it's been like that for the last month or so, but definitely now it's gotten really serious. We're winning 9-4, and Marmol and Howry and Dempster are in the game. These are games we have to win, especially playing before Milwaukee and before the other teams, just sending them the message that the best they can do is hold serve against us for that day."

Lee's solo homer got the Cubs going in the first, when they put across 2 runs against lefty Zach Duke. Hill got into trouble in the second, when he gave up 4 straight hits, including an RBI double by No. 8 hitter Matt Kata and a single by Duke that scored 2.

"I didn't throw the ball the way I can throw the ball, clearly, but to go out there and battle and get through it and get through 5 - it's disappointing, but we won the game and a win's a win," Hill said. "You take it. We're close to the playoffs, and this is a lot of fun for us to be in this.

"For me this is the first time, and I think this is something that is a great challenge. You look at your next start, and it's going to be even bigger."

Piniella expressed similar sentiments despite being ready to yank Hill.

"It could be a youngster going through a pennant race the first time, growing pains," the manager said. "But this is certainly a wonderful experience for him, and at the same time - I don't know how many inning's he's got, but he's probably approaching 200 - that's a lot of innings for a young pitcher. You have to go through this."

Soriano hit his first homer in the second, a solo shot. Ramirez hit a 2-run shot in the third, giving him 100 RBI for the season. In the fifth, Soriano added a 2-run homer (No. 31), and he finished with a 2-run double in the seventh.

"I think I've found my timing at the right time, which is good," said Soriano, who had no homers in April. "The team needs my offense."

The Pirates didn't get a hit from the third through the seventh before Howry and Dempster gave up single runs in each of the eighth and ninth. By that time, the Cubs had moved another step closer to October.

"The offense has been great, the pitching's been solid and the fans have been unbelievable," Hill said. "The other day coming off the field, I got goose bumps. The enthusiasm that everybody has and the vibe that's going around the field is just a great buzz, just a lot of fun."

Concluded Soriano: "It's nothing yet. Milwaukee is playing very good, and we still have seven games left. We have to keep playing like we have yesterday and today to make sure we make the playoffs."