Stars power Cubs to 3-1 victory over Pirates
Ted Lilly and Alfonso Soriano came to the Cubs together before the 2007 season, when the team was on the upswing.
The Cubs will need both now, too, as they try to claw their way back into the National League Central race.
And both did their part in Tuesday night's 3-1 victory over the Pirates at Wrigley Field. Lilly worked 7 strong innings to improve to 3-6 with a 3.12 ERA.
Soriano hit a pair of solo homers off Pirates starting pitcher Jeff Karstens, giving him 3 for the week so far and 13 for the season.
Lilly has seen a lot of Soriano, starting in their previous lives as New York Yankees.
"He's always happy," Lilly said. "It's such a great example. Sori is pretty much the same whether he went 0-for-4 or 2-for-4 with a couple of homers or 3-for-4 or whatever it was, a game-winning homer. He just shows up to the ballpark, and he's pretty much the same every day. He pulls for his teammates regardless of how he's doing.
"He's clearly a talented player but, I think, special individual, too, in the sense that I've always believed that he's one of those guys that makes the guys around him a little bit better."
Soriano is healthy and happy this year. He credits hard-playing center fielder Marlon Byrd and young shortstop Starlin Castro for helping to keep his own enthusiasm up.
In Tuesday's victory, Castro hit a sacrifice fly in the second to put the Cubs up 1-0. Soriano belted his first homer, to left-center, in the fourth. After the Pirates got a homer from Ryan Doumit in the fifth, Soriano hit a second one to left in the sixth.
The ever-present smile was there after the game.
"That's my personality," he said. "I'm always happy. God blessed me with the talent to play this game. I love to play the game. That's me. Every day when I come to the ballpark and put the (uniform) on, that makes me very happy."
Lilly gave up 6 hits. He stranded a pair in the seventh, getting left-handed pinch hitter Ryan Church to strike out on a slider.
"I thought he would pitch well tonight, and he did," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella. "The last time out in Seattle, we shortened him up, and I thought he'd be nice and strong."
After the seventh, Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol (14th save) finished off the Pirates.
The Cubs aren't kidding themselves. Their record is 34-43, and the climb is uphill.
"I think overall, the general feeling's still the same," Lilly said. "We're hungry, I'll say that. We want to win. We know that we need to make a move. That's not going to change. If we were to have lost today, we're still going to go out there with the same attitude, and the mindset is winning on Wednesday. At this point, that's all you can do."
<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p>
<p class="News">Cubs 3, Pirates 1</p>
<p class="News"><b>Strike thrower:</b> Ted Lilly threw 101 pitches, 73 for strikes. In the first inning, he threw 14 pitches, 11 for strikes. He had innings of 9/8, 11/10, 17/13 and 15/10.</p>
<p class="News"><b>Doubling down:</b> Catcher Koyie Hill hit doubles his first two times up and scored the game's first run on Starlin Castro's sacrifice fly. It was Hill's third career 2-double game. </p>
<p class="News"><b>Slow but surely:</b> First baseman Derrek Lee, who has struggled, extended his hitting streak to seven games (9-for-31, .290).</p>
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