Derrek Lee delivers Cubs victory
What the Cubs did Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field took their manager's breath away.
Lou Piniella was still huffing and puffing from excitement when he met the media, so dramatic and emotional was the Cubs' 6-5 win over the Houston Astros.
Derrek Lee's 2-run homer that dropped into the basket in left-center in the eighth inning brought the Cubs all the way back from a 5-1 deficit on a day when both Milwaukee and St. Louis had already posted victories.
"What a huge win, boy," said Piniella, whose team maintained its 1½-game lead on the Brewers for first place. "That's our biggest of the year. Clutch, clutch by Mr. Lee.
"We talked the other day about the big guys getting going in crunch time and, boy, here's it's September and they've gotten going."
Lee also homered in Saturday's win over the Astros along with Aramis Ramirez.
Trailing 5-1 in the sixth, the Cubs began chipping away at Houston's lead. They scored twice in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Alfonso Soriano and Ryan Theriot's run-scoring single. Then in the seventh, Matt Murton led off with a home run pinch hitting for Cliff Floyd.
"Murton's home run was huge," Lee said. "A 1-run game is a lot different than a 2-run game."
But this was a victory made possible by more than home runs.
Michael Wuertz, Kerry Wood, Scott Eyre, Carlos Marmol and Ryan Dempster combined for 4 shutout innings out of the bullpen to pick up shaky starter Rich Hill, and center fielder Jacque Jones turned in a spectacular catch in the top of the eighth.
"A lot of good plays defensively, Murton's pinch-hit home run, our bullpen coming in and holding the Astros at bay -- I don't remember what else, but that's enough," Piniella said.
Marmol (5-1) was pitching with a man at second and two outs when Jones saved a run with a lunging catch all the way in short left field. Jones covered a ton of ground to get to the ball that left fielder Soriano appeared not to see until the last minute.
Jones dived in front of a startled Soriano and came away with the catch.
"I'm just amazed he caught it," said Dempster, who worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 25th save.
Soriano singled with one out in the eighth off Astros reliever Chad Qualls. After Theriot flied out, Lee hit an 0-1 pitch high to left center that might have been pushed into the basket by a favorable wind.
"I wasn't sure that Derrek had gotten all of it, but it got up there in that basket, and that was that," Piniella said.
"I didn't know," said Lee. "I didn't hit it great. It was nice to see the basket scoop it up."
For Qualls, it was another ugly memory of pitching in Chicago. Qualls surrendered Paul Konerko's grand slam for the ages eight miles south in Game 2 of the 2005 World Series that helped send the White Sox on their way to a title.
Hill battled through the fifth inning but left after throwing 108 pitches and allowing 5 runs on 6 hits.
"Getting the ball down was the issue," Hill said. "Everything seemed to be up. I'm not pleased with the way I threw the ball."
Hill's frown turned to a smile when he watched Lee homer on TV in the clubhouse.
"D-Lee got a nice shower of water when he got in here," Hill said.
"Today we stayed with this game," Piniella said. "Houston jumped out to a 5-1 lead and it didn't look good, but these kids stayed with it and we got back in the ballgame.
"I was excited, I really was. That's fun to win a baseball game that way."
Cubs 6, Astros 5
At the plate: The Cubs were staring at defeat before Matt Murton's pinch-hit, solo home run in the seventh and Derrek Lee's 2-run homer in the eighth gave them the win. Lee went 3-for-4 with 3 RBI, while Alfonso Soriano had 2 hits. Soriano singled and was on base when Lee hit his go-ahead homer.
On the mound: It was not a very good start by Rich Hill, but Michael Wuertz, Kerry Wood, Scott Eyre, Carlos Marmol and Ryan Dempster were terrific out of the bullpen, combining for 4 shutout innings. Dempster converted his 13th consecutive save opportunity dating to June 11, while his total of 25 for the year surpassed his 2006 total.
-- Tim Sassone