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Lilly baffles Blue Jays to lead Cubs

Jun 15, 2008 - 10:36 PM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Ted Lilly became the second former member of the Toronto Blue Jays to haunt his old team in as many days.

The lefthander pitched six scoreless innings Sunday, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 7-4 victory over the Blue Jays in the rubber game of a three-game interleague series.

Reed Johnson, who was released by the Blue Jays during spring training, hit a three-run homer in the the second inning Saturday off Toronto ace Roy Halladay in the Cubs' 6-2 win.

Lilly (7-5) allowed just one hit, a single by Brad Wilkerson in the fourth inning.

"Whether he has his best stuff or not, he's going to have the same attitude of trying to beat you every day," Johnson said. "He's a competitor and you can see how bad he wants it, and I think that also can become contagious and run throughout the team."

The lefthander walked five and struck out six in beating his former team, which had runners reach base in four of his six innings.

"I feel like against a club like this I got away with a few pitches," said Lilly, who played for the Blue Jays from 2004-06. "I know I only gave up a hit but, there were some hard-hit balls hit right at guys, and especially with the walks being able to come out of that without the damage they could have done, I'm pretty fortunate."

Derrek Lee drove in three runs and Johnson and Jim Edmonds had two hits apiece for the Cubs, who also got a two-run homer from Aramis Ramirez on Sunday.

Kosuke Fukodome, Lee and Edmonds each had RBI singles in the third inning off Toronto starter Jesse Litsch (7-3) to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead.

Chicago tacked on four more runs in the seventh on a two-run single by Lee, followed by Ramirez's blast.

The Cubs have not missed a beat offensively despite being without Alfonso Soriano, who broke a bone in his left hand when he was hit by a pitch from Atlanta's Jeff Bennett on Wednesday. He is expected to miss at least six weeks.

Chicago has won three of four since Soriano's departure and averaged five runs per contest against Toronto, whose starting staff entered Sunday's game ranked third in the major leagues with a 3.61 ERA.

"We've got a good enough team to get by," Ramirez said. "We're playing great. I thought we should have won all three games here, but we left a lot of guys on base during the first game. We can get by without Soriano."

Litsch pitched 6 1/3 innings, surrendering five runs and eight hits. He struck out two and walked one.

Gregg Zaun, who was activated from the 15-day disabled list prior to the game, hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning for Toronto (35-36), which fell under .500.

"Bottom line is we're not playing good enough to win, we seriously got out-pitched and out-hit," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, who was ejected in the bottom of the eighth inning after arguing a call with first-base umpire Adrian Johnson. "They have a good ballclub, that's why they're sitting where they are at."