Lilly's pitching perfect complement to revived offense

The Cubs may have found a couple of things Sunday: themselves and their game.

Time will tell whether the 8-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers was another false start in a season of fits and starts or whether it's the start of something truly big.

The victory gave the Cubs three out of four in the series, and it moved them to 1 game over .500, at 40-39, with the Braves and the Cardinals coming to town to finish the first half. The Cubs trail the Cardinals by 21/2 games in the NL Central.

"You know, our team is slowly starting to swing the bats with a little more consistency," said manager Lou Piniella, whose team outhit the Brewers 13-11.

"So let's just keep playing these next seven games and see what happens. So far the homestand's started in good fashion."

Speaking of fashion, it was Ted Lilly T-shirt day, and the Cubs' lefty celebrated that and his All-Star Game selection by throwing 61/3 innings of 2-run ball while striking out nine and allowing no walks.

"This is what we were looking for," said Lilly, who improved to 8-6. "Knowing that Milwaukee was coming into town, that was one of the things we were talking about, just trying to find a way to win this series. Today was a big game for us in that sense, to pull out the series and gain some ground and have some of that momentum going into the rest of the homestand."

Even though he gave up 9 hits, Lilly was sharp, and he was attacking hitters and throwing strikes.

"They're aggressive," he said of the Brewers. "They've got confidence in the lineup, and they're going to find out what's going on early in the count. Sometimes you take your chances. One of the things that enables me to do that was the fact that we had a little bit of a cushion."

That's where the other part of the Cubs' game came into play.

Derrek Lee gave Lilly a 2-0 lead in the first inning with his 15th homer of the season. Newly minted leadoff man Kosuke Fukudome (2-for-4. 2 runs) led off with a triple on the first pitch he saw and then rode home on Lee's blast to left field.

Prince Fielder crushed a line-drive homer to center off Lilly in the fourth, but the Cubs scored twice in the fourth and three times in the fifth, with Lee getting an RBI single and Jake Fox blasting a 2-run homer onto Waveland Avenue.

As far as Lee sees it, the Cubs did what they wanted to do all weekend except for Saturday's 11-2 loss.

"I thought we did it the first day, also," he said of a 9-5 win. "We swung the bats well and got good pitching again today. The second game (a 2-1 win), we got good pitching and squeaked it out. Today, we got up-and-down production from the lineup, so it was a good day.

"It's a good series for us. We played good baseball and got good pitching and swung the bats well."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p> <p class="News"><b>All over the plate:</b> Starting pitcher Ted Lilly threw 112 pitches, 81 for strikes, in 61/3 innings. His pitches/strikes over his first 3 innings, respectively, were 12/10, 10/8 and 9/8. He turned in his team-best 13th quality start.</p> <p class="News"><b>D-liverance</b>: First baseman Derrek Lee homered, giving him 4 in his last five games. He has 15 homers and 51 RBI to go with a .504 slugging percentage.</p> <p class="News"><b>Fox trotting:</b> Third baseman Jake Fox homered and doubled. He has 5 multihit games and is batting .310 with 4 homers, 15 RBI and a .563 slugging percentage in 26 games.</p> <p class="factboxheadblack">Scouting report</p> <p class="News">Cubs vs. Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field</p> <p class="News"><b>TV: </b>Comcast SportsNet Monday and Wednesday; Channel 9 Tuesday</p> <p class="News"><b>Radio:</b> WGN 720-AM</p> <p class="News"><b>Pitching matchups:</b> The Cubs' Randy Wells (3-3) vs. Jair Jurrjens (6-6) Monday at 6:05 p.m.; Ryan Dempster (5-5) vs. Javier Vazquez (5-7) Tuesday at 7:05 p.m.; Carlos Zambrano (4-3) vs. Kenshin Kawakami (4-6) Wednesday at 1:20 p.m.</p> <p class="News"><b>At a glance</b>: The Cubs are 1-2 against the Braves this year in two trips to Atlanta. Jurrjens and Vazquez entered Sunday in the top 10 in ERA in the NL. As a team, the Braves were fourth in ERA (3.88), while the Cubs were fifth (3.90). On offense, the Braves were 11th in runs scored, the Cubs 15th. The Braves' Chipper Jones was 10th in OBP, at .407. The Cubs' Derrek Lee is 21-for-53 (.396) with 3 homers vs. Vazquez. Aramis Ramirez, who comes off the DL tonight, has 2 homers off Vazquez.</p> <p class="News"><b>Next:</b> St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field, Friday-Sunday</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=304897">All-Star Lilly looks at big picture <span class="date">[7/6/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=304887">Cubs getting healthy <span class="date">[7/6/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=304889">Imrem: Lilly not overlooked <span class="date">[7/6/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>