Pirates lose to Cubs, 9-8
PITTSBURGH – The Chicago Cubs, well back in the NL Central race with only one-third of the season gone, had lost a game like this only four days before. They knew they couldn’t possibly lose another. Mark Bellhorn hit his first grand slam and Alex Gonzalez followed with a solo shot in a five-run third inning as the Cubs opened a seven-run lead, then held on to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-8 on Thursday
Chris Stynes added a two-run homer as the Cubs won their eighth in 12 games despite Kerry Wood’s worst effort in six starts. Wood allowed five runs and eight hits in 5 1-3 innings after giving up four or fewer hits in each of his previous five starts.
Until Antonio Alfonseca got all three batters he faced in the ninth inning for his eighth save, the game was fast resembling the Cubs’ 7-5 loss Sunday in Houston. Then, manager Don Baylor lifted starter Jason Bere with a five-run lead, only to watch the Astros rally to win 7-5.
“I think we should be going home 6-1,” Wood said of a 4-3 road trip that also included an extra-inning loss Monday in Pittsburgh. “We lost some games we shouldn’t have lost. Those games hurt. We need to put away the games we should.”
Despite his roughest outing since giving up five runs in 5 1-3 innings in a 10-0 loss to the Dodgers on April 26, Wood (6-3) beat the Pirates for the first time in eight career starts. He was 0-3 with a 5.53 ERA against them.
“When someone hits a grand slam, it’s more of a relaxed feeling when you go out the next inning,” Wood said. “But I should have gone out and gone after guys. It shouldn’t have been that close.”
Jimmy Anderson (4-7) was 3-0 against the Cubs, but left after making his second successive rough start, allowing seven runs, six earned, and five hits in three innings. Since pitching seven shutout innings against the Cubs on May 21, he has yielded 11 earned runs in 8 1-3 innings in two starts.
Anderson insisted he didn’t pitch badly, saying, “I thought I threw pretty good pitches and kept the ball down. The balls they hit were down for the most part.”
Catcher Jason Kendall said, “He kept the ball down – except for the pitches he got up. A couple of pitches were up and they hit them.”
Anderson’s wildness got him into trouble in the Cubs’ second when he walked Bellhorn and hit Bobby Hill with a pitch. Todd Hundley, just off the disabled list, started the inning with a double, and Gonzalez had an RBI double ahead of Wood’s run-scoring grounder.
Kendall felt he tagged out a slow-starting Hundley at the plate on Gonzalez’s double, but TV replays appeared to show Kendall swiping at the runner and missing.
The Cubs’ big third inning also started with a walk, to Sammy Sosa, and was helped by third baseman Rob Mackowiak’s error on Hundley’s grounder. Bellhorn’s one-out homer was his fifth, and Gonzalez’s solo drive was his fourth.
“I haven’t played in five or six days, but I got to start and I’m happy to contribute,” Bellhorn said. “I was just trying to get a fly ball and get the run home from third.”
Stynes’ two-run homer, his third, came in the fourth after reliever Sean Lowe hit Darren Lewis with a pitch and made it 9-2.
Craig Wilson had a two-run single in the second off Wood, who was chased during a three-run sixth that included Adrian Brown’s two-run single and Aramis Ramirez’s pinch-hit RBI single.
Brian Giles ran his hitting streak to 12 games with his 13th homer in the seventh, cutting the Cubs’ lead to 9-6. Giles is 20-for-40 (.500) during his streak.
A double error on reliever Juan Cruz for mishandling, then throwing away Brown’s grounder led to two Pirates runs in the eighth.
NOTES: Thirteen of the Cubs’ 52 games have been against the Pirates, but the teams don’t meet again until late September. … Giles’ hitting streak is a career best. … Kevin Young, who came into the game hitting .189, went 2-for-3 with two doubles against Wood and is 9-for-20 against him. … Both of the switch-hitting Bellhorn’s right-handed homers have been in PNC Park. … Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon and Kendall were both ejected in the ninth for arguing balls and strikes. Kendall, who grounded out to start the inning, felt a called strike that made the count 2-2 was well off the plate. … Anderson has allowed a club-high 11 homers and has struck out only 20 in 62 2-3 innings. … The Pirates lost their 24th in 36 games since a 12-5 start.