Jake Fox's grand slam lifts Cubs over Mets 11-4

The left fielder brought the bleacher fans to their feet again Saturday.

On Friday, it was Alfonso Soriano. He wasn't able to play Saturday because of a sore left knee.

No problem. Jake Fox was ready.

Fox's grand slam highlighted a 6-run fifth inning for the Cubs as they came from behind to beat the hapless New York Mets 11-4 in front of a crowd of 40,857, most of whom didn't get into it until Fox trotted around the bases.

"Fox told me before the ballgame, he said, 'I got your back today, Skip,' " said manager Lou Piniella, whose Cubs improved to 65-62. "That's exactly what he told me. I tell you what, a couple at-bats into it, I was wondering. But he caught up in a hurry."

Fox caught up with what he said was a hanging splitter from Mets pitcher Bobby Parnell and deposited it into the left-center field bleachers to put the Cubs ahead in a game that saw the teams trade leads early.

"The last couple days, I've been feeling pretty good at the plate in batting practice," said Fox, who is batting .300 with 10 homers and 39 RBI in 160 at-bats. "I've been feeling pretty good when I've gotten a couple at-bats in a row. I had my 4-for-4 game the other day, and then I had a rough one.

"I knew after a couple days of getting my swing, I was going to feel good today. I told him (Piniella) that today because I've been feeling really good the last couple of days."

As the Mets changed pitchers after the grand slam, Fox got a nice greeting from Soriano and then had to take a curtain call.

"I've never done that before; that was my first time experiencing that," Fox said. "When they were saying, 'Get out there, get out there,' I'm like, 'Where am I supposed to go?' They said, 'Get out there. Wave your helmet.' So I got out and waved my helmet. It was pretty cool."

Cubs starting pitcher Ryan Dempster slogged through the early innings, giving up a 2-run double to Jeff Francoeur in the first and another 2-run double, to Brian Schneider, in the fourth.

Dempster worked a 1-2-3 fifth and stranded two in the sixth before calling it a day. He was happy with the 14-hit support provided by the likes of Fox and Milton Bradley, who was on base four times and scored a pair of runs.

"Probably the most frustrating thing for me was that we scored 2 runs (in the third), and I helped them (the Mets) out in the fourth and gave 2 back," said Dempster, who is 8-7 with a 4.15 ERA. "I wasn't getting ahead of guys. I wasn't throwing as many strikes as I'd like to throw.

"For me, it felt like an average outing, but it's easy to be average when you score 11 runs and win a game. And the boys come out swinging today."