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Bay's eighth-inning blast leads Pirates past Cubs

May 1, 2007 - 3:40 AM PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Jason Bay made his 100th home run as a Pittsburgh Pirate a memorable one.

Bay hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning to give the Pirates a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Monday.

Adam LaRoche and Ronny Paulino drove in runs for Pittsburgh, which has won seven of the last eight against Chicago.

After the Cubs jumped out with single runs in the first two frames and Pittsburgh fought back with scores in the fourth and seventh, Bay belted a hanging slider by reliever Michael Wuertz (0-1) over the fence in right-center field for his fourth home run of the season and 101st of his career.

Bay, whose first career homer came as a member of the New York Mets, is 16-for-46 with 11 RBI in his last 12 games.

"Honestly, a home run was the last thing I was thinking about," Bay said. "I've been trying to do a better job of getting more balls to center field or right field instead of pulling everything. I just got it up high enough - it wasn't a mammoth one by any means - but we'll take it nonetheless."

Jonah Bayliss worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh while Matt Capps (2-0) pitched a scoreless eighth to pick up the win for Pittsburgh. Closer Salomon Torres worked around a two-out walk for his eighth save in 11 chances.

"They could have blown it open (in the seventh) but (Bayliss) shut the door," Pirates starter Zach Duke said. "Our bullpen's been doing the job all year and they were outstanding again tonight."

Chicago starter Rich Hill, who has been outstanding all season, pitched well enough to win. The lefthander allowed two runs and six hits in seven frames with a walk and six strikeouts.

"It was a tough, tough loss," Hill said. "We battled the whole game and it just came down to a good swing. You put it away and look forward to the next one."

Hill was nearly untouchable in his first three starts, yielding just one run and eight hits in 22 innings, before being charged with four runs and six hits in 6 2/3 frames in a 4-1 loss to Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Chicago opened the scoring in the first with a two-out double by Derrek Lee and an RBI single to left by Aramis Ramirez, and added another in the next frame. Rookie Felix Pie reached on a two-out single and scored on a double to left by Hill, his first hit in 11 at-bats this season.

Hill allowed just two hits over the first three frames before the Pirates scored in the fourth. Ryan Doumit doubled with one out and scored on a two-out single by LaRoche, just his 11th hit of the season but seventh with runners in scoring position.

Chicago had a chance to break open the game in the seventh, loading the bases after two outs on singles by Alfonso Soriano and Lee sandwiched around a walk to Ryan Theriot. But Bayliss entered and got Ramirez on a soft flyout to escape.

"What Jonah Bayliss has convinced me of is the fact that if you're going to beat him, you're going to have to hit the ball," Pittsburgh manager Jim Tracy said. "He's proven to us that he's a strike-thrower and he has a fearless approach, and he's very good at using both sides of the plate with his fastball and obviously he has a terrific pitch in that changeup. That sequence of pitches that he threw to Aramis Ramirez right there was terrific."

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Chicago and dropped it to 0-6 in one-run games.

"Sometimes we hit and what you see in our record in one-run ballgames is we don't hit," Chicago manager Lou Piniella said. "If we start hitting with a little more consistency, you'll see us win more baseball games. We had numerous chances, but nothing."

Duke was charged with two runs and eight hits in 6 2/3 innings in his second straight solid outing.

Duke regrouped after two horrible starts by allowing a run and six hits in seven innings in a no-decision against Houston on Tuesday. In his previous two appearances, the 24-year-old was tagged for 14 runs and 18 hits in six innings in losses to San Francisco and Milwaukee.

"I'm starting to get back to where I can trust myself and it's a good feeling," Duke said. "I've definitely got some momentum building.

"There's not really a secret formula. If I execute pitches then I do well."

Pittsburgh tied it in the seventh on a leadoff walk by Jose Bautista and a one-out double by Paulino.