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Marquis, Cubs complete sweep of Pirates

Aug 27, 2008 - 8:28 PM By Chris Adamski PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- Jason Marquis made sure the Chicago Cubs wouldn't need a lot of runs to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates again.

The first-place Cubs closed out their season series with the last-place Pirates by winning for the 14th time in 18 games against them, 2-0, on Wednesday afternoon.

A day after the Cubs won a 14-9 slugfest, Marquis (9-7) pitched seven outstanding innings for his third win in a row.

"This was a very well-played game, basically on both sides - in contrast to last night," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "Our pitcher was the story. Marquis gave us seven excellent innings, and our two relievers come in and do the job and we win the ballgame."

Alfonso Soriano and Mark DeRosa each had two hits for Chicago, which won its fifth consecutive game.

The only runs of the game came in the seventh against Zach Duke (4-13), who has lost nine decisions in a row and has not won since June 9.

After Reed Johnson led off the inning with a single and DeRosa followed with a double, the Cubs scored twice without the ball leaving the infield.

Ronny Cedeno hit a light chopper that, in effect, acted as a squeeze play, allowing Johnson to score from third. Henry Blanco then performed a more traditional sacrifice, popping a bunt toward first that dropped in while DeRosa came home.

"We have a great offense, but we can still can do little things to win a ballgame," Blanco said. "And that's what we did today."

"We've been able to win the last couple weeks here by just sitting back and swinging the bat," Johnson said. "But today we weren't swinging the bat very well, so it was a little bit different game and ended up working out for us."

The runs came just as Marquis was settling in, as the righthander improved to 3-1 against the Pirates this season by allowing only five hits and no walks with three strikeouts. He retired the final nine batters he faced.

"Today I just really focused on pitching in the zone, not letting hitters get away from me and let the defense do the work," Marquis said. "I'm not going go out there and strike out 10 every time, so I make sure I pitch to contact and have guys mis-hit the ball."

Carlos Marmol struck out two in a scoreless eighth and Kerry Wood had two strikeouts during a perfect ninth, earning his 27th save.

Duke tossed eight strong innings but was the hard-luck loser for Pittsburgh, which has lost a season-high seven in a row and 11 of 13. The lefthander allowed two runs and seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

"I felt like I did pretty well today - especially against that offense," Duke said. "But Marquis was on his game, so there's not a lot I could do.

"You tip your hat to them for knowing how to manufacture stuff like that. One ball left the infield (in the seventh) and they got two runs, so what can you do?"

Raul Chavez went 2-for-3 and Freddy Sanchez had a triple for the Pirates, who are 7-19 since the trading deadline, when they shipped away outfielders Jason Bay and Xavier Nady.