Soriano connects in Cubs victory over Astros

When the Cubs were in their summer doldrums and Alfonso Soriano was on the disabled list, manager Lou Piniella harped and harped on how important Soriano was to the offense.

Maybe Piniella played that harp so much that people began tuning him out.

But on a sultry Tuesday at Wrigley Field, Soriano proved his boss right again. Soriano blasted a 3-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to break a 7-7 tie and lift the Cubs to an 11-7 victory over the Houston Astros after they had blown a 6-1 lead.

"He bats the first time in that leadoff spot," Piniella began, warming up to talking about Soriano as an RBI threat. "He can be 3-hitter, a 4-hitter, a 5-hitter. The back part of our lineup, to their credit, has done a nice job of presenting opportunities for him. Today, he took advantage of it. Just a big, big hit, a 3-run homer."

Soriano had 4 RBI, moving his season total to 52. Over his last 10 games, he has multiple hits in five and is 18-for-43 with 2 doubles, 5 homers and 11 RBI.

So how much does he mean?

"He changes the game with one swing," said second baseman Mark DeRosa. "He's one of the big superstars in the game. We feed off those guys. I think more so than his ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, he loosens us up as a team. He's a huge part of who we are."

Soriano's big homer was his 20th, giving him seven straight seasons of 20 homers. He shrugged off the praise of his teammates.

"I don't know," he said. "The more important thing now is my legs are good, my hands are good. I can do whatever I can do to help he team win. I'm happy to be back in the lineup."

When this one began, it looked like it would be a Cubs rout. DeRosa's double gave them a 2-0 lead in the first against Wandy Rodriguez. The Astros got a run in the second but the Cubs answered with 4 in the bottom half.

Cubs starter Rich Harden threw only 6 pitches in a 1-2-3 first, all for strikes. He sailed through perfect third and fourth innings. But he seemed to tire, and the Astros got 2 in the fifth and 2 more in the sixth, on Geoff Blum's homer.

"It was the first time this year that he's told me that he had enough," said Piniella, who added that Harden's legs, not his troublesome right shoulder, presented the problem.

Harden, who lasted 5 innings, seemed to concur.

"I felt good early," he said. "I don't like to make excuses for myself. I missed some pitches, left some balls up. Off-speed, I wasn't throwing for strikes, and they were sitting (on) fastballs. If I'm not locating that pitch, they're going to get it."

The Astros' Carlos Lee got beleaguered Cubs reliever Bob Howry in the seventh to put Houston up 7-6. With a man on second and two outs, Howry pitched to Lee, who crushed one out to left-center.

"Yeah, I had choices, and obviously, the right one wasn't chosen," Piniella said with a chuckle.

The Cubs went ahead for good in the bottom half, set up by a leadoff single by Reed Johnson and a double by DeRosa. Kosuke Fukudome drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly, but Soriano added the coup de grace with a big fly off a breaking pitch from Doug Brocail.

"Oh, man, it's great," Soriano said. "I like those moments."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=225925">Cubs think they can spare Eyre <span class="date"> [8/5/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=225924">The day after, still plenty of storm stories <span class="date">[8/5/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>