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Cubs stay hot, rally past Braves

Jun 12, 2008 - 11:43 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago Cubs continued their home dominance Thursday, while the Atlanta Braves kept finding a way to lose tight games on the road.

Reed Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the 11th inning Thursday as the Cubs completed a three-game sweep of the struggling Braves with a 3-2 victory.

Aramis Ramirez led off the 11th with a walk issued by reliever Manny Acosta (3-5) and moved to second on a passed ball.

After an intentional walk to Kosuke Fukudome, Geovany Soto singled to left, loading the bases. That set the stage for the pinch-hitting Johnson, who was hit in the leg by the first offering from Jeff Ridgway to give the Cubs the victory.

"That's probably the best-feeling (hit by pitch) I've ever had, for sure," Johnson said. "I looked on the replay. If that ball doesn't hit me, it probably goes to the backstop. I don't know if (Braves catcher Brian) McCann would have been able to get over there and block it. It might have been over anyway if it didn't hit me."

The win was the 11th straight at home for Chicago, which improved to 29-8 at Wrigley Field this season.

The streak still did not impress Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who wants to keep his team focused.

"If you start playing huge home games in June, what are they in September?," Piniella said. "Let's go out there and keep playing and not get ahead of ourselves. There's a lot of baseball left to be played."

It was the 21st straight one-run loss away from home for the Braves, who dropped their sixth straight overall.

"I know it's not easy to win on the road," Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones said. "But I'm not sure I'm bringing it every day. Everybody else executes. We don't execute. Everybody else makes crucial plays. We don't make crucial plays."

Chicago, which had trailed by two runs early, cut the deficit to one with a run in the seventh before Jim Edmonds tied the game in the bottom of the ninth against Blaine Boyer, blasting a solo home run just over the wall in left field to send the game to extra innings.

"I was just trying to get the ball up in the wind," Edmonds said. "I got lucky and hit it hard enough to get it out."

"The pitch Edmonds hit, I painted the outside corner," Boyer said. "He just went with it. If the chance comes up again, I'd try to make the same exact pitch in the same exact location. Nothing I could do about it."

Atlanta got on the board in the second, when McCann led off with a single and Jeff Francoeur blasted a two-run shot to left field off Chicago starter Carlos Zambrano.

Braves starter Tim Hudson maintained the lead until the Cubs finally broke through in the bottom of the seventh, when Edmonds hit a sacrifice fly to right after Ramirez and Soto singled to put runners on the corners.

Atlanta had a chance to extend its one-run advantage in the top of the eighth, loading the bases with none out. But Chicago reliever Scott Eyre struck out Greg Norton and Gregor Blanco, and Carlos Marmol came on to fan Omar Infante to keep the deficit at 2-1.

"We're in all these games, but we never seem to add on," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "We get runners on base, but we never get them home. That's the way we've played on the road this year."

Kerry Wood (3-1) tossed two scoreless innings to notch the win, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out four.