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Lilly tops Haren, shuts down Diamondbacks

May 9, 2008 - 10:44 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- It was the Arizona Diamondbacks that felt the frustration this time around when Ted Lilly was on the mound.

Lilly struck out a season-high 10 batters in seven innings as the Chicago Cubs beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 3-1, on Friday.

Winning for the third time in his last four starts, Lilly (3-4) allowed just a first-inning home run to Chris Young and three hits. He also issued just two walks as he posted double digits in strikeouts for the 11th time in his 10-year career.

"I felt good. I was pretty pumped up about the game," Lilly said. "I figured against a guy like (Dan) Haren, he was going to keep them in the game. He's a tough guy to score runs off of. I felt it was kind of my responsibility at some point to keep up with the other starting pitcher, regardless of what he was doing."

It was a much different experience for the veteran lefthander than in his previous appearance against the young Diamondbacks. Lilly failed to make it out of the fourth inning in the Cubs' 8-4 loss in the second game of last year's National League Division Series.

Lilly left that outing slamming his glove down in the dugout at Chase Field, as Arizona went on to sweep the series in three games.

The lefthander turned the tables on the Diamondbacks on Friday, limiting the NL West leaders to their lowest run output of the season as he continued to bounce back for an 0-3 start to the season.

"We've seen steady progression every time out and he's pitching like he was last year when he was going well," Chicago manager Lou Piniella said. "(He was) mixing up his pitches, changing speeds, using his breaking pitches. A really nice seven innings."

With the Arizona lineup held in check, Haren (4-2) was forced to absorb his second loss in his last three decisions.

Haren, who began the season by allowing five earned runs in his first four starts of the season, had one bad inning, leading to the Diamondbacks' fourth loss in their last six games.

Haren had allowed just one batter to reach through the first four innings until the Cubs rallied, getting two runs and three hits in the fifth.

"Dan pitched a great game," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "He certainly didn't deserve the outcome he got. He had all of his pitches working, a great splitter and command of his fastball on both sides of the plate."

Mark DeRosa, who hit a liner off Haren in the third inning, began the uprising with a two-out double to left field. With Lilly on deck, Arizona opted to intentionally walk Reed Johnson to set up a potential forceout. However, Lilly lined a single up the middle, knotting the score at 1-1.

"After DeRosa got the hit, we walked a guy to get to Lilly," Haren said. "I fell behind him and tried to come inside. He just put the bat on the ball and it fell in."

It was the third hit in 11 at-bats this season for Lilly, who also plated his second run of the year.

"Yeah, that was fun," Lilly said. "I think he threw it right into my swing. One thing that I realized is that it is important to be able put the bat on the ball. You're going to get some at-bats in close games."

Alfonso Soriano followed with a double that was near the left field line, giving Chicago a lead it would never lose.

The Cubs were helped out on a questionable call in the top of the eighth, getting an unorthodox double play when Eric Byrnes was called for batter's inference on an attempted steal of second base by Augie Ojeda.

Instead of potentially having the tying run at second base with one out, Arizona had the bases empty with two outs.

"I heard the umpire yell, 'Ball four,'" Chicago catcher Geovany Soto said. "But Byrnes' swing went all the way through the zone, and when I threw the ball to second base, it hit his bat. The umpire made the right call."

"He (home plate umpire Ted Barrett) said that Eric made contact with the bat and Soto, and stepped in front of home plate to inhibit the throw going to second base," Melvin said.

To add insult to injury for the Diamondbacks, Derrek Lee connected on his ninth home run in the eighth for an insurance run for the Cubs.

Chicago reliever Carlos Marmol struck out a batter in the eighth and Kerry Wood fanned one in a perfect ninth for his sixth save in nine chances this season.

Haren finished with two runs and five hits allowed, striking out five and walking two.

"I really had good stuff," Haren said. "Outside of walking one guy on a 3-2 change, my stuff was there all day. Even though I lost the game, I feel like I'm finally getting back to my normal way of pitching."

After drilling his team-leading ninth homer of the season in the first, Young struck out in his other three at-bats for the Diamondbacks.