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Lee lifts Cubs over Brewers in 12 innings

Sep 19, 2008 - 12:13 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Derrek Lee singled home pinch runner Jason Marquis in the bottom of the 12th inning Thursday, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 7-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

With the win, Chicago's magic number to clinch the National League Central is now two.

Milwaukee righthander Carlos Villanueva (4-7) walked Daryle Ward to start the 12th. After Marquis entered the contest as a pinch runner and advanced to second on a sacrifice, he reached third on a deep fly ball to right field off the bat of Ryan Theriot. Marquis then scored the winning run on Lee's line drive up the middle.

"It wasn't a bad pitch. I think (Villanueva) was trying to bury it and he just left it up a bit," Lee said of his game-winning hit.

The Brewers (84-70) took a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but could not hold on for a second straight win over the Cubs (93-59). Milwaukee (84-69) trails the New York (84-67) by one game for the NL wild card prior to the Mets' game against the Washington Nationals on Thursday.

"Obviously this one is tough to swallow, any loss right now is tough to swallow with us being down to 10 more ballgames," Brewers interim manager Dale Sveum said. "We had this game in our hands and we let it get away."

Jim Edmonds singled home Aramis Ramirez to pull the Cubs within 6-3, then Mark DeRosa single to put two runners on base. Rookie catcher Geovany Soto promptly sent the game into extra innings with a three-run homer off Salomon Torres, who blew his eighth save of the season.

"I was trying to get a pitch to hit and he left a fastball up," Soto said. "I thought he would throw me a sinker down and away, so I would hit a ground ball. He left it up and I hit it."

"I wish I could re-do the pitch to Soto," Torres said. "It was supposed to be a sinker outside and it didn't sink to much - in fact the ball went up. I wish I could do it over again."

Kerry Wood (5-4) pitched two scoreless innings to earn the win.

"That's the beauty of baseball, you just never know what is going to happen until the last out," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "I think we had only three hits heading into the ninth inning, in the ninth we got four more. The home run by Soto was huge. It was a heck of a ballgame, I can say that because we won it."

Cubs starter Rich Harden pitched five tough innings, throwing 115 pitches. He allowed only one run and one hit, but walked six and struck out seven.

After Harden departed, the Brewers scored four times in the sixth inning to take a 5-2 lead. Mike Cameron, Ray Durham and Ryan Braun each had run-scoring singles in the frame, and J.J. Hardy later walked with the bases loaded.

Milwaukee starter Dave Bush allowed two runs and two hits - both on solo homers by Edmonds and Ramirez. He walked two and struck out three.