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Cubs win marathon contest with Pirates

Apr 8, 2008 - 1:34 AM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- What appeared to be an easy victory in their first road game of the season ended up requiring the Chicago Cubs almost five hours of work from just about every available player on the roster.

Aramis Ramirez's sacrifice fly plated Ryan Theriot with the go-ahead run in the 12th inning, leading the Cubs to a 10-8 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.

Pittsburgh reliever Evan Meek (0-1) walked in another run - one of five walks in the 12th - in just his third career appearance because Pittsburgh did not have any pitchers left.

Theriot drew a leadoff walk, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee also walked with one out to set the stage for Ramirez, who lofted a fly ball to right field to plate Theriot and give the Cubs a 9-8 lead.

"I just tried to put the ball in play," said Ramirez, who spent the first 5 1/2 seasons of his career with the Pirates. "The guy was wild; you don't know what you're going to get from a guy like that. I was just going to put the bat on the ball and see what happens."

Mark DeRosa drew a bases-loaded walk later in the inning to make it 10-8.

The marathon game - which lasted 4 hours and 47 minutes - featured 15 pitchers, 26 hits, five errors, 27 men left on base and Pittsburgh's wasted comeback from a seven-run deficit.

"It wasn't all that pretty," Chicago manager Lou Piniella said. "But it's in the win column."

Geovany Soto had three hits with two RBI and a run, DeRosa scored two runs and drove one in and Ronny Cedeno had a three-run double for the Cubs, who have won three in a row.

Jon Lieber (1-1) worked three innings of scoreless relief to earn the victory and Carlos Marmol pitched the bottom of the 12th for his first save.

Nate McLouth had three hits and two RBI, Jose Bautista went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and Luis Rivas had two hits, two runs and an RBI for the Pirates, who lost their fourth straight home opener.

"All in all, when you come back in a game like that, you did a lot of things right," Pittsburgh manager John Russell said. "So I'm not going to dwell on the negatives when there are so many positives in that game. We just didn't win."

The Cubs built a 7-0 lead with a six-run third that chased Pirates starter Tom Gorzelanny. The lefthander worked only 2 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs, six hits and four walks with two strikeouts.

"Absolutely everything went wrong for me today," Gorzelanny said. "I didn't get the job done. I wasn't throwing strikes and I was making big mistakes. I take full responsibility for losing that entire game."

The rout appeared to be on at that point, but Pittsburgh got back into the game with a five-run fourth.

"Obviously, we could have easily gave up, and on Opening Day, you definitely don't want to send the crowd home on that note," said Xavier Nady, who had two hits on the same day he was named National League Player of the Week. "We got it back with a big inning, and once again the bullpen was unbelievable."

Four runs scored on back-to-back ground balls that were followed by throwing errors, and another came home when McLouth tripled high off the wall in right. That hit ended Chicago starter Ted Lilly's day after 4 2/3 innings, in which he allowed five runs and seven hits.

"Offensively, we did some nice things," Piniella said. "We let them back in the game with walks and errors."