Bradley's 3 RBIs leads Cubs over Nationals

The math says the Cubs are all but out of the playoff picture in the National League, but it didn't stop them from savoring a 9-4 victory Wednesday night over the Washington Nationals.

The Cubs scored 6 runs in the eighth inning to pad a 3-2 lead in front of an announced crowd of 36,562, many of whom left well before the game was decided. With the Cardinals winning, the Cubs remained 9 games out in the NL Central.

"It doesn't matter who we play, we need to win some baseball games," said manager Lou Piniella, whose Cubs improved to 63-61. "We need to put together a semblance of a good winning streak and go from there. Right now, a win really feels good, believe it or not."

Starting pitcher Rich Harden echoed his manager's sentiments. Although he didn't get the victory, Harden worked 6 solid innings, giving up 5 hits and 2 runs.

"I think everybody in the clubhouse, we still believe we're in it," Harden said. "Nobody's down. We don't believe we're out of it. You've got to go with that mindset. We've got to win some games. You can't get too ahead of yourself and start thinking we've got to win however many in a row.

"Just plan on winning every series, I think we'd be in pretty good position at the end of the season."

Harden gave up a run in the first. Milton Bradley hit a 2-run homer for the Cubs in the third. The Nats tied it in the fifth before Bradley got credit for the game-winning RBI with a fielder's choice grounder in the seventh.

Bradley was asked if he felt "love" from the home crowd.

"I feel love for me," he said. "I love me. That's all. I look in the mirror. I go out there and play. I feel the love from my teammates, the love from the coaching staff and from myself. I go out there and just try to do things."

The Cubs' 6-run eighth was keyed by 2-run doubles by Koyie Hill and Derrek Lee as they sent 10 men to the plate.

"It always feel good to contribute; it feels even better to win," Hill said. "With that being the pressing issue around here, I think it always is, but it's nice to get back on the right track."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p> <p class="News"><b>Playing Koyie:</b> Backup catcher Koyie Hill started in place of Geovany Soto. Hill singled twice, doubled and drove in 3 runs. He also was walked once intentionally.</p> <p class="News"><b>More quality:</b> Rich Harden turned in the Cubs' 76th quality start of the season and his fourth in a row. Cubs pitchers have an ERA of 2.17 in the quality-start games.</p> <p class="News"><b>Mr. Grabow:</b> Reliever John Grabow worked a scoreless eighth, extending his Cubs scoreless-innings streak to 10 over 12 appearances. </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=316833">Bradley bitter about 'badmouthing' from Cubs fans<span class="date"> [8/26/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>