Riot's clutch hit lifts Cubs over Twins

The long and the short of it is this: Even though the Cubs had to play small ball and scratch their way to a ninth-inning 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, they'd rather not do it that way.

"I hope not, man, geez," said Ryan Theriot, whose bases-loaded single into right field scored Derrek Lee with the winning run.

He'd get no argument from his manager.

"I hope that that's not the case," said Lou Piniella, whose team got back to .500 at 30-30. "I hope that we start scoring more runs. This was a big game in that we hit the ball with men in scoring position today, at least. That's sort of a contagious thing."

If the Cubs have to take baby steps to get their struggling offense back to where it needs to be, they were marveling at the steps taken by big man Lee in the ninth.

Lee singled with one out, and when Geovany Soto grounded the ball into left field, Lee read the play and motored to third, with Soto going to second.

After the Twins walked Mike Fontenot to load the bases, Theriot lined his hit into right off Jesse Crain, setting off a big celebration.

"First off, D-Lee's pretty much taken us on his back the last few days, few games, week or so," Theriot said. "What an amazing baserunning play he made. Without that, we wouldn't even be sitting here talking about it.

"That's what leaders do, and that's what veterans and guys we look to do. Not only swinging the bat, but he's making baserunning plays like that and just really helping this team."

Lee said he read the play and also watched third-base coach Mike Quade.

"Sometimes you've got to take a chance," said Lee, who is riding a 13-game hitting streak. "Runs have been hard to come by. Getting to third base with less than two outs gives the hitter a little easier at-bat, so I thought it was worth the risk.

"Quade gave me the heads-up that they were playing no doubles, so be alert. Soto hit the groundball, and the grass really eats up the ball. They were playing so deep, and the ball kind of slowed down. I thought I had a good shot at it."

The Cubs got another solid performance from starter Ted Lilly, who went 72/3 innings and didn't get a decision. He gave up a run in the second on a double by Carlos Gomez, a stolen base and an RBI push bunt by Nick Punto.

Theriot's sacrifice fly tied it in the bottom of the inning, and the Cubs went ahead on Soto's RBI double in the fourth. Lilly gave up a game-tying homer to Gomez in the sixth.

"It was fun," said Lilly, who has a 2.94 ERA. "It was fun to watch guys swing the bat the way we all expect them to, and some key hits, off some good pitching."

And it was fun for Piniella to watch a celebration after his team had lost four in a row and seemingly had lost its way on offense,

"Why not?" he said. "It's a lot of release needed. Why not? I was happy for them."

Bruce Miles' game tracker

The lucky 13: First baseman Derrek Lee went 2-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to a team-high 13 games. Lee has reached base safely in 23 straight games. He is 19-for-52 (. 365) during the hitting streak.

Job 1: Ted Lilly gave the Cubs their 38th quality start of the season. They entered the day tied for the major-league lead with Colorado. Lilly gave up 9 hits and 2 runs in 72/3 innings. The Cubs are 22-16 in quality-start games, and the starters' ERA is 2.17.

Gutting it out: Carlos Marmol (2-1) earned the win despite walking two in 11/3 innings. He has 30 walks in 301/3 innings.

Awesome average: The Twins' Joe Mauer was 3-for-5, raising his batting average to .414.