DeRosa, Cubs hop to it

So what happened to all that talk about the Cubs' offense going on a summer vacation?

Apparently, it's back to work now.

After starting pitcher Jason Marquis gave up 4 runs in the top of the third inning Wednesday, the offense came back to deliver a pick-me-up in the bottom of the inning. It also delivered a knockout blow to the Houston Astros, scoring 8 runs, keyed by Mark DeRosa's grand slam and Alfonso Soriano's 3-run homer.

The Cubs added 2 more in the fourth and cruised to an 11-4 victory at Wrigley Field, taking this series two games to one. The victory improved the Cubs' record to 69-46 and kept them 5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers.

"Our lineup 1-8 - and even our pitchers can swing the bat - but our lineup 1-8, it's tough," said DeRosa, who has 2 grand slams among his 12 homers this year. "There's not much room for error there. We've got a lot of guys who are capable of leaving the park with one swing. We've got a lot of guys who know their roles and work to get on base. It's a tough lineup to deal with."

Manager Lou Piniella, whose team just finished a stretch of 20 games in 20 days, pointed to several reasons for the resurgence, which came about after a 2-4 trip after the break. For the season, the Cubs have outscored their opponents 615-472.

"I said all along when we were in that Houston-Arizona road trip that once we got Soriano back in the lineup, it would help stabilize things offensively, and it has," he said. "I've been able to rotate my outfielders a little bit. His presence in the lineup means a lot to us in different ways. First of all, alone, his offensive presence. But other things. We can rest our catcher a little more. We can rotate our outfielders a little more.

"We build from the 1-spot in the lineup. I can go 1, 3, 4 and do whatever we want from the other spots. It gives us a lot of flexibility. When he gets hot, he carries you."

The Cubs went ahead 1-0 in the second, but things got messy for Marquis with two outs in the third. Kaz Matsui hit a high fly to deep center. Jim Edmonds drifted back, with his sunglasses up on his cap, and couldn't come up with the ball, which bounced over the wall for a double.

Instead of being out of the inning on 12 pitches, Marquis walked Hunter Pence and gave up an RBI single to Lance Berkman before Carlos Lee crushed a 3-run homer.

The Cubs rescued Marquis in the home half, getting a one-out single by Ryan Theriot and two-out walks to Aramis Ramirez and Edmonds. That set the stage for DeRosa's slam, which carried to left-center and causing the crowd of 41,107 to call him out of the dugout.

"That's my first curtain call of my career," said DeRosa, who batted .195 in July. "I read Reed Johnson's comments the other day about watching D-Lee (Derrek Lee) and Sori and Aramis and all those guys get curtain calls on a pretty regular basis throughout the years, and it's nice. It makes you feel good. It's one of those moments you don't forget."

Soriano blasted his 21st homer on his second trip to the plate in the third.

Marquis survived a shaky fourth but stranded the bases as Piniella had his bullpen up.

"Obviously, putting runs on the board helped a little bit," Marquis said. "I just told myself to be a little more aggressive, attack the strike zone like I had been.

"I was happy with the way I threw the ball. I just ran into that one inning, and the offense did a great job and let me relax a little bit."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=226202">Soriano's not slowing down<span class="date"> [8/6/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>