Cubs begin with 8 straight hits, beat Pirates 9-4
The Cubs are barely breathing in the NL wild card race, but they do know how to kick a team when it's down.
A day after the Pittsburgh Pirates clinched their 17th consecutive losing season, the Cubs tied a major league record by opening Tuesday's contest with 8 straight hits. They jumped to a 7-0 lead in the top of the first and won 9-4.
According to Elias Sports Bureau, this was the fifth time a team opened with 8 straight hits - most recently on Sept. 25, 1990 by the New York Yankees against Baltimore.
The last team to accomplish the feat in the National League was Pittsburgh on Aug. 26, 1975, against Atlanta. The Cubs did it to the Pirates back on April 21, 1973, at Wrigley Field.
"We came out swinging the bats," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "Base hits, base hits, base hits."
The big inning featured three infield singles and a few well-place ground balls. Here's the rundown of the record-setting first:
Ryan Theriot led off with an infield single to ex-Cubs shortstop Ronny Cedeno. Milton Bradley reached on a bunt single, before Derrick Lee hit a liner to right field that loaded the bases.
An Aramis Ramirez single brought home the game's first 2 runs. Jeff Baker singled to again load the bases. Catcher Geovany Soto clubbed a 2-run double high off the wall in right, then Kosuke Fukudome dropped a double down the line in left to add 2 more runs.
Bobby Scales collected the eighth hit, a bouncer up the middle that was fielded by Cedeno, but his throw pulled first baseman Steve Pearce off the bag.
Starting pitcher Ryan Dempster finally ended the hit parade by laying down a sacrifice bunt. Theriot's ground out scored Fukudome with the seventh run of the inning before Bradley ended it with a fly out.
"It's a pretty good feeling when your team runs off 8 hits in a row and scores 7 runs before you even take the mound," winning pitcher Ryan Dempster said. "It takes a lot of pressure off anybody. It was fun to watch the guys do that."
Bradley left the game after the first inning with tightness in his legs. He was already scheduled for a day off today when the Cubs try for the sweep against Pittsburgh. Micah Hoffpauir replaced Bradley and hit his ninth home run to lead off the fourth inning.
Zach Duke (10-14), the Pirates' losing pitcher, was charged with 8 runs and 12 hits in 4 innings.
"I've never really seen anything like that, but it happened," Pirates manager John Russell said. "It was just one of those things where we couldn't stop it. You can't explain it. It was just bad luck or good hitting, I don't know what it is."