Cubs magic number down to 2

It didn't seem humanly possible Thursday to take all the air out of the fans at Wrigley Field just minutes after Geovany Soto had capped a wild, two-out, no one on, 4-run rally with a 3-run home run to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.

But the Milwaukee Brewers somehow accomplished the feat.

They did it by putting runners on second and third with no outs in the top of the 12th. And they did it against Cubs closer Kerry Wood, who was pitching his second straight inning.

Wrigley Field, a place that had just been partying like it was 1999, suddenly was nearly void of noise.

Out of the dugout popped Cubs manager Lou Piniella for a quick chat.

"Lou went out there and asked Kerry what he wanted to do," Soto said.

Their conversation went something like this:

"I'll get three strikeouts," Wood told his skipper.

"No, just get three groundballs," Piniella said.

End of discussion.

And three batters later, it was end of threat. And a few minutes after that it was end of game as Derrek Lee drove in pinch runner Jason Marquis with a single to center to cap a crazy day that saw the Cubs' magic number to capture the NL Central crown reduced to 2, courtesy of their 7-6 win.

"The beauty of baseball is you never know what's going to happen until that final out," Piniella said. "It was a heck of a ballgame, and I can say that because we won.

"It's uplifting to us and it's deflating to the other team because they played their hearts out, too."

Piniella couldn't have been more correct.

"You're running out of games," Brewers manager Dale Sveum said. "It gets to the point where you start thinking you have to win seven out of nine or eight out of nine."

While the Brewers rued their fate, the Cubs basked in finally finding their offense after being limited to 3 hits through eight innings, even though 2 of those were solo homers.

"It was great," Soto said of his 23rd blast of the season. "Personally, I needed that and we needed that as a team."

Soto's shot to left came off Brewers closer Salomon Torres.

"I was just trying to get a pitch to hit, and he got a fastball up," he said of Torres. "Wow, this year's really been crazy."

That it was Lee who got the game-winner was the perfect capper to the day.

"We were all pulling for him," Soto said of his occasionally struggling teammate.

"What this team shows is that it's a team," Piniella said. "This was a big swing - two games in one day is a lot.

"We're getting close to where we want to go."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=236064">Soto's 9th-inning homer states case for rookie honor<span class="date"> [9/18/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=236070">Edmonds takes an early exit <span class="date"> [9/18/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>