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Red-hot Jones leads Cubs to second straight win

Aug 11, 2007 - 6:38 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Jacque Jones is doing a fine impression of Alfonso Soriano.

One night after driving in a season-high four runs, Jones had a pair of hits and drove in two runs to back six-plus effective innings from Jason Marquis as the Chicago Cubs posted a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Friday.

Jones, who went 4-for-5 in Thursday's series opener, sparked a three-run third inning with a leadoff bunt single, added an RBI double in the fourth and hit a solo homer in the sixth off Colorado starter Aaron Cook that put Chicago up, 5-1.

"Jones has really taken to that two-hole," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said.

The Cubs had been scuffling without Soriano, who suffered a torn quadriceps on Sunday, until Jones' huge night on Thursday woke them from their slumber.

"I just know I can play," Jones said. "I always have confidence in my abilities no matter what. I've been in the league for eight years for a reason, it's not a fluke. It's not by accident, I can play."

"He's swinging it," Piniella said. "You get confident by having good at-bats and getting some hits and that's exactly what he's doing. He's driving the ball."

Chicago (60-55), which trails Milwaukee (61-55) by one-half game in the National League Central, had scored just eight runs in three straight losses before exploding for 10 runs in the opener of this four-game series.

After Jones singled in the third, Derrek Lee reached on a throwing error by first baseman Jeff Baker, who was playing in place of Todd Helton. Matt Murton hit into a fielder's choice and Mark DeRosa drew a walk.

Rookie Mike Fontenot then drove in the first run with a groundout and Jason Kendall plated a pair with a single to center field for a 3-0 lead.

Jones then stretched the lead to 4-1 with a run-scoring double in the fourth that scored Marquis, who led off the frame with a double.

Marquis (9-7) didn't need much run support in this one as he held the Rockies to one unearned run and five hits in 6 2/3 innings to snap a personal four-game road losing streak.

"I just tried to follow my gameplan like I do in every ballpark with hard sinkers down in the zone and work my cutter off that. Just tried to get some ground balls," Marquis said.

"He was making good pitches. He was hitting his spots, working the ball, he had some good movement," Colorado manager Clint Hurdle said. "He pitched a good game."

Carlos Marmol got the final out of the seventh, but the righthander loaded the bases with no outs, but Bob Howry came in and allowed just a RBI groundout to rookie Troy Tulowitzki to cut the lead to 5-2.

"You'd like to come out of there with nothing but when you come in with the bases loaded give up one run, I'll take that every time," Howry said.

Murton homered in the ninth to put Chicago up 6-2 and Ryan Dempster closed out the ninth.

Cook (8-7) absorbed his first loss in six starts, yielding five runs - two earned - and eight hits in six innings.

"Unfortunately tonight I'm not able to pick up the guys on defense," Cook said. "They've been picking me up all year and I wasn't able to do that for them tonight."

Tulowitzki drove in both runs for the Rockies (59-56), who trail the Arizona Diamondbacks (65-51) by 5 1/2 games in the National League West. Arizona is hosting Washington.