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Minus Piniella, Cubs snap seven-game losing skid

Jun 3, 2007 - 10:03 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Finally, some good news for the Chicago Cubs.

Playing without their manager Lou Piniella, who was suspended indefinitely by Major League Baseball on Sunday, the Cubs halted their seven-game losing streak with a 10-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

Mark DeRosa hit a first-inning grand slam and Sean Marshall picked up his first win of the season for Chicago, which snapped a seven-game losing streak.

"He (Lance Cormier) threw me a cutter on 2-2, and with the bases loaded I knew I wouldn't see anything off-speed," said DeRosa. "I just tried to stay through the pitch and got it up in the air. This was a big moment for me."

One day after catcher Michael Barrett and righthander Carlos Zambrano engaged in a shoving match that spilled over into a clubhouse brawl, Piniella was ejected arguing an out call at third base in Saturday's loss to the Braves.

With bench coach Alan Trammell managing in Piniella's absence, consecutive singles by Felix Pie, Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez loaded the bases in the first against Lance Cormier. Jacque Jones grounded into a fielder's choice for the second out of the inning, but DeRosa followed with a shot over the center field wall for his sixth homer of the season.

"You couldn't have scripted this any better," Trammell said. "A grand slam in the first, then we added on. This is just what we needed to stop it (losing streak), any way we could."

Alfonso Soriano added his sixth homer of the season - all solo shots - in the second inning and Lee added his sixth round-tripper of the season in the third inning with the bases empty to make it 6-0.

The Cubs increased their lead to 9-0 in the fifth. Soriano tripled to lead off the inning, and Pie doubled him home, chasing Cormier.

"This was a real important game for our team," Soriano said. "All the hitters looked very relaxed today. The pressure on us seems to be gone."

In his first appearance since suffering from a strained right triceps muscle to start the year, Cormier (0-1) took the loss. The righthander allowed eight runs on eight hits, walking one and striking just a single batter.

"I am not going to chalk this up to rust because there was no rust factor," Cormier said. "Some days you have your stuff and some days you don't. Today I didn't have it."

Oscar Villarreal relieved Cormier and Lee greeted him with a single to center. After an out, Jones singled to left field, scoring Pie. Lee later scored on a sacrifice fly by DeRosa.

The Braves scored their lone run in the seventh inning when Matt Diaz singled home Jeff Francouer.

"We really didn't hit Marshall at all today," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "He had a great breaking ball all day long, he was hard to hit."

Ryan Theriot scored Chicago's final run in the eighth inning on a throwing error by Braves catcher rookie Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Marshall (1-2) took advantage of the run support to earn his first win of the season. The lefthander allowed one run on six hits and one walk in 6 2/3 innings while striking out a career-high eight batters.

"It was good to get the run support early," Marshall said. "I was able to settle down and just pitch my game. Hopefully the guys can go on a long winning streak now."

Carlos Marmol and Ryan Dempster pitched the final 2 1/3 innings to finish out the win.

Lee had three hits for the Cubs, while Soriano, Pie and Jones added two hits apiece.

Kelly Johnson had two hits for Atlanta.