Ramirez's 3 homers, 7 RBI rally Cubs past Astros

While Lou Piniella explained his decision to retire at season's end on Tuesday afternoon, the wind blew in at Wrigley Field.

By the time the Cubs and Astros got down to business for the first installment of the Piniella Farewell Tour, the flags pointed straight out to center.

The night proved to be as complete a turnaround as the breeze.

The Cubs drew loud boos as they spotted the Astros a 6-run lead, but Aramis Ramirez's 3 homers and 7 RBI over the last five innings sparked a 14-7 triumph before an announced crowd of 36,401.

With his first 3-homer game since 2004, Ramirez owns 10 homers in his last 12 games. And with his career-high-tying 7 RBI, the veteran third baseman owns 24 RBI over the same stretch.

"I'm not a home run hitter," Ramirez said. "I want to get my average up. I'm still in the .220s. I think I'm better than that."

Then he smiled.

"I'm at least a .250 hitter," he said.

The Cubs' 14 runs on 14 hits - everyone in the lineup posted at least 1 safety while Geovany Soto rattled a solo homer off the roof of the center-field restaurant - enabled rookie reliever Andrew Cashner to pick up his first career victory.

Cashner, who needed just 16 pitches to throw 2 perfect innings, tried to sneak into the showers early but suffered an ice bath from Cubs starter Ryan Dempster.

Piniella didn't receive a similar treatment, but only because the game's end (and result) brought enough visible relief after a long day.

The 67-year-old Piniella turned off his phone early in the morning and didn't retrieve it until late at night.

"Emotional and draining," Piniella said. "But it's over with and now my situation doesn't have to be disturbed anymore. And we can concentrate on the team, which is the important thing."

The Cubs (43-52) remain 101/2 games behind St. Louis, but virtually every Cub promised not to slog through the final two months of Piniella's 49th and final season of professional baseball.

"I don't think we can try any harder than we've been trying," said first baseman Derrek Lee. "In that regard ... it would be good to send him out on a good note."

"As a team and as an organization," Dempster said, "I guess (Piniella's announcement) gives us some sort of direction as to where the next step is.

"As we go on through the season here and go to different places, people can kind of give him his due for everything he's done for the game. He's been around a long time."

But even watching his team score 13 consecutive runs for a rousing win didn't make Piniella regret his decision one iota.

"No, sir," he said, shaking his head as he smiled. "No, sir."

Lindsey Willhite's game tracker Cubs 14, Houston 7Ride the wind: Aramis Ramirez drilled breeze-aided homers into the left-field bleachers in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings. Ramirez's fourth career 3-homer game accounted for a career-high-tying 7 RBI.The E-4 brothers: Cubs 2B Ryan Theriot and Houston 2B Jason Castro each committed throwing errors on the others' groundballs that should've been 4-6-3 DPs. Theriot's boo-boo cost 3 unearned runs in the second while Castro's miscue accounted for 5 unearned runs in the fifth.That's a winner: Lou Piniella picked up career victory 1,827. No matter how the Cubs wrap up the year, he'll finish No. 14 on baseball's all-time wins list.False512294Aramis Ramirez swings on a three-run home run against the Astros during the fifth inning.Associated PressFalse <div class="infoBox"><h1>More Coverage</h1><div class="infoBoxContent"><div class="infoArea"><h2>Photo Galleries</h2><ul class="gallery"><li><a href="/story/?id=395366">Images: Cubs 14, Astros 7 </a></li></ul></div></div></div>