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Lilly uses arm, bat to lift Cubs past Diamondbacks

Jul 24, 2008 - 7:15 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Ted Lilly pitched six solid innings, drove in a run and scored once and Reed Johnson hit a grand slam to help the struggling Chicago Cubs avoid a three-game sweep with a 10-6 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.

Derrek Lee hit a solo homer in the first inning and Mark DeRosa scored a pair of runs for the Cubs, who entered the contest losers on five of their previous six games.

Lilly (10-6) allowed three runs and six hits while striking out six and issuing three walks.

After the Diamondbacks took a 2-1 lead on Tony Clark's two-run homer in the fourth, Lilly came up in the fifth with runners on second and third and sparked a three-run rally with an RBI single over a drawn-in infield.

"We had some good energy early on," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "(We) came back, got the lead, Doug (Davis) actually got a little better as he went along. In the fifth inning, it started to turn around a little for us."

"The hit, I don't know how to explain that one," Lilly said. "It kind of worked out. I didn't hit it hard, caught a break there on the bases. I felt like I needed to take advantage of any opportunity there was to take a base. I thought (Davis) was throwing the ball fairly well and I wasn't in total command, so I felt like every run was going to be important."

The veteran lefthander moved to second on an RBI groundout by All-Star Alfonso Soriano and stole third before coming in to score on Ryan Theriot's grounder.

It was the first game back for Soriano, who was activated from the 15-day disabled list earlier in the day. Sidelined since June 11 with a broken left ring finger, Chicago's leadoff hitter finished 1-for-5 with a double.

"I feel very comfortable at home plate," Soriano said. "I'm a little surprised because I haven't been playing for seven weeks. I see the ball good and making some good swings, so I hope to be a little more select at home plate and I will be fine."

The Cubs, who were 16-18 without Soriano, had averaged just 1.2 runs per game during their last five setbacks.

"Soriano changes our lineup around a little bit," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "It gives it a different feel, it really does. We've needed this for a while. The guys feel good about it. Hopefully, they are going to swing the bats better as a group."

Johnson broke the game wide open in the eighth, when he capped a six-run outburst with his second career grand slam to deep right-center field off righthander Micah Owings. He added a double in the fifth among three hits and scored two runs.

"We've been struggling lately to score runs," Johnson said. "So anytime that we can get some runs on the board... Ted ends up getting a big hit for us, then we're sitting first and third, get a couple of more runs driven in there. To get us off to a roll like that was big, and obviously the six-run inning was big for us, too."

The Diamondbacks pulled within four in the eighth on Chris Snyder's three-run homer off Bobby Howry and put runners on second and third in the ninth, but Carlos Marmol struck out Chad Tracy to end the game.

Davis (3-5) suffered the loss for Arizona, allowing four runs and five hits in seven innings.

"Couldn't stay away from the big inning tonight," Davis said. "No outs, second and third, and Lilly comes up with the good hit. Not only that, when he gets on second, he steals third. That was a huge turning point. You've got give props to him for catching me sleeping, and when he stole third, that was pretty much the winning run."