Despite .000 average, Lilly coaxes key walk
Cubs manager Lou Piniella and pitcher Ted Lilly tried to outdo each other with one-liners after Friday's 4-3 victory over the Phillies.
Fodder for the verbal one-upsmanship was Lilly's bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the fifth inning that allowed the Cubs to tie the game at 1-1.
"How about that?" Piniella said. "He got 2 quick strikes. I saw that zero batting average up there. I was hoping to get a digit. Let me tell you what, a walk was fine."
Lilly was just as good.
"A couple of guys were asking me about that," said Lilly, who is 0-for-26 this year. "It was kind of an out-of-body experience. I don't know why I swung at the first pitches I swung at, and I don't know why I laid back at the ones that I did. Fortunately, it worked out."
Strikeout machine: Reliever Carlos Marmol earned his 17th save of the season by striking out Jayson Werth, Ryan Howard and Ben Francisco in the ninth inning.
Marmol now has 81 strikeouts in 422/3 innings pitched. That's a rate of 17.09 per nine innings, which would shatter Eric Gagne's record of 14.98, set in 2003.
"He hadn't pitched since Saturday," said Lou Piniella. "We were going to get him work today regardless. I told him before the ballgame it would be great getting him in a save situation. When he's fresh and he doesn't overthrow the ball, he's really, really, really good. He's good all the time, but he's really good when he's fresh."
Catch this: Left fielder Alfonso Soriano was all smiles despite a sore mouth. That came courtesy of a diving, sprawling catch on Jimmy Rollins' flyball toward the line to start the game.
"Oh, man," he said. "I was running too hard to catch that ball, and when I hit the ground, my mouth hit the ground."
Soriano's surgically repaired left knee has allowed him to work on his outfield play more this year.
"I've been working very hard to make those plays," he said. "I'm very happy to make those plays because defense and hitting are two different parts of the game. You have to be 100 percent at both."