May 24, 2002 4 min read

CHICAGO (AP) – After two months of scuffling along, the Chicago Cubs are finally starting to hit. Fred McGriff homered and almost did it a second time, and rookie Bobby Hill hit his first major league home run Thursday as the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-6. It was Chicago’s third straight victory.

“Every day you’ve got somebody picking another guy up, that’s how you win ballgames,” said McGriff, who had three RBIs and is hitting .438 over the last six games.

“It’s going to take a team effort day in and day out. The Cardinals are playing real good right now, so we’ve got to get going.”

Hill snapped an 0-for-9 slump as he went 3-for-5 with four RBIs, coming within a double of hitting for the cycle. The Cubs outhit the Pirates 15-10, and had double-digit runs for the first time since April 24.

Matt Clement (2-3) held the Pirates scoreless for five innings before giving up Jason Kendall’s two-run double in the sixth inning. He allowed six hits in seven innings, striking out seven.

Kris Benson (0-2) struggled again for the Pirates, who dropped a season-low four games below .500 with their third straight loss. The right-hander, who missed all of last season after elbow surgery, allowed seven runs and 11 hits in just 3 1-3 innings.

“He’s going to have some up and down days,” Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon said. “There’s times when he will be good and other times he will not have his stuff. You just need to be patient.”

Aramis Ramirez and Rob Mackowiak homered off Ron Mahay in the eighth inning, the first time this season the Pirates have hit back-to-back home runs. Brian Giles added a solo shot in the ninth.

Hill, one of Chicago’s most highly touted position prospects, has been struggling since his May 10 callup, hitting just .158. But he hit an RBI single in the third inning, and that seemed to be the spark he needed.

“Being young, sometimes when you don’t start off on a good start, you can get frustrated,” said Hill, who also made an error in the third. “That’s one thing I had to learn, have patience and don’t get frustrated so much.”

In the fourth inning, he sent Benson’s 3-1 pitch into the right-center bleachers for a two-run homer. He raced around the bases so fast he almost overtook Corey Patterson, and he crossed himself and pointed to the sky as he crossed home plate.

He added a run-scoring triple in the seventh.

“It felt like a big monkey off my back, to tell you the truth. Just a sigh of relief,” he said.

“My first at-bat wasn’t as sharp as I wanted it to be, but I felt something that I haven’t felt since spring training. That’s when I knew it was going to start coming around for me.”

McGriff also hit a two-run shot in the fourth – and then had a second home run for about five minutes in the sixth inning. The 1-1 pitch from reliever Sean Lowe looked as if it might have cleared the right-field pole, and it was initially called a home run.

“At first I thought it was going foul for sure. Then it seemed like the wind blew it back to fair territory,” McGriff said. “If you’re running down the line, it’s a tough call. … From my angle, I thought it was a home run.”

But Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon protested, the umpires conferred and decided it had, in fact, landed foul.

“The second, third and home plate umpires definitely had the ball hooking foul and hitting concrete,” crew chief Tim Welke said.

McGriff got his revenge, though. He drew a walk and took third when Chad Hermansen dropped Moises Alou’s flyout. Lowe intentionally walked Bill Mueller to load the bases, but Robert Machado doubled down the first-base line to score McGriff and Alou and give the Cubs a 9-2 lead.

The Pirates had their chances, loading the bases in the third but coming away with nothing. In the fourth, Kevin Young struck out and was then called for batter’s interference as Kendall tried to steal second.

“We got in the hole early,” said Giles, who was 3-for-3 with two walks. “We just couldn’t come back.”

NOTES: The Cubs, who have struggled at Wrigley Field this season, have their first three-game winning streak at home. … The Pirates have lost their last five afternoon games.