DeRosa, Cubs roll to victory

SAN FRANCISCO - So who needs Aramis Ramirez, anyway?

Well, the Cubs do, but as long as Mark DeRosa is around and able to play seven positions, the Cubs can live without Ramirez for a little while.

DeRosa filled in more than ably at third base for Ramirez Monday night, hitting a 2-run homer in the fifth inning and a grand slam in the eighth as the Cubs crushed the Giants 9-2.

The Cubs also got what they needed from starting pitcher Ted Lilly, who worked into the ninth inning and improved to 9-5. With the victory, the Cubs snapped a four-game losing streak.

With Ramirez home in the Dominican Republic, DeRosa went 3-for-4 and hit his ninth and 10th homers of the season, equaling last year's total.

"No one does replace him," DeRosa said of Ramirez. "He's one of the best hitters in the game. It felt good. It felt good to contribute. Hitting the grand slam, I felt I put the game away. Teddy pitched a great game. Matt Murton hit a big double to get us going early, and we tacked on. We needed this win, no doubt."

Lilly gave up 7 hits in 8 innings and was charged with 2 runs after he put the first two batters on in the ninth.

"It was important," Lilly said. "I really wanted to go in there and give our bullpen a rest."

Lilly has come a long way from an 0-3 start.

"He started out slow," manager Lou Piniella said. "I mentioned about a month, six weeks ago that you could see his stuff was getting better and more consistent. He was picking up velocity. He worked hard on his changeup. His curveball was coming around. You could see that he was going to get on a little bit of a roll."

The Cubs did their offensive damage against Barry Zito, 0-8 at home and 3-12 overall.

They got an unearned run against Zito in the second. Geovany Soto singled with one out in the second, and DeRosa walked. After Jim Edmonds struck out, Murton doubled to right-center, scoring both runners.

The Cubs got 2 runs in the fifth. Soto doubled, and DeRosa crushed one to deep left-center. His slam came after 3 straight one-out walks.

"We've had our share of adversity, missing some guys and getting beat three times by our so-called enemies over there on the South Side," DeRosa said.