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Red-hot Cubs pound Mets, win fifth straight game

Apr 22, 2008 - 11:19 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Ted Lilly shook off a poor start to the season and became the fifth straight Chicago Cubs starter to win a game.

Lilly pitched six effective innings and Ronny Cedeno hit a grand slam and had five RBI as the Chicago Cubs won their fifth straight contest with an 8-1 triumph over the New York Mets on Tuesday.

Reed Johnson had two RBI and Mark DeRosa also had an RBI hit for the Cubs, who have outscored the opposition, 44-11, during their streak.

Lilly (1-3) had allowed five runs in each of his previous three starts but was able to minimize the damage Tuesday.

The lefthander retired the first 10 batters before Angel Pagan doubled to right in the fourth inning. But after a pair of walks loaded the bases for the Mets, Lilly got Carlos Delgado and Damion Easley on popouts.

"I felt like I was a little bit more aggressive," Lilly said. "I wasn't (as) flat as I was in the past. I was a little more on top of my fastball and that was one of the reasons I was getting more of the pop-ups and some of the ground balls."

The Mets again loaded the bases with one out in the top of the sixth but only scored one run when Brady Clark reached on a fielder's choice to second, plating Carlos Beltran from third. Lilly then retired Raul Casanova on a fielder's choice to end the inning.

"We need more timely hitting from our guys," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "We didn't have any of that in this series."

The lefthander gave up one run and four hits with four walks and four strikeouts, throwing 107 pitches.

"The attitude and the mentality of the club, whether they went 0-for-4, they're talking about us winning games," Lilly said. "It's a pretty fun club to be a part of. It's really encouraging for me being in the clubhouse, hearing guys talking the way they do. It seems to me the guys are just concerned about winning."

The Cubs had opened the scoring in the bottom half of the fourth when Cedeno delivered a two-out RBI double down the right field line to score Kosuke Fukudome from first base.

After an intentional walk, Lilly reached on an infield single and Johnson blooped a two-run single to left field, giving the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

"Cedeno, what a nice couple of days he's had," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "We've been getting a lot of hits, scoring a lot of runs. The games that are close and we've been able to pull away late. We're in a good groove right now."

DeRosa had an RBI single in the seventh and Cedeno blasted his grand slam to left in the eighth inning off Jorge Sosa, putting the finishing touches on Chicago's two-game series sweep.

Mets starter Nelson Figueroa (1-1) lasted five innings and gave up three runs on seven hits. The righthander walked five and struck out two.

"The Cubs are playing at a high level right now," Figueroa said. "I felt like I could have gotten out of some of those innings if we had made a couple of plays on defense. That includes me."

It was the third straight loss for the Mets, who gave up five runs in the eighth inning of Monday's 7-1 setback.

New York had played late Sunday night and have played three games in less than 48 hours.

"Certainly the schedule is not ideal," Mets third baseman David Wright said. "But you can't use that as an excuse. We ran into a good team the last couple of days. And other teams have tough schedules as well. That's not the reason for our poor showing in Chicago. We're just not getting it done."