Soto knocks in 7 runs as Cubs rally past Pirates

[August 27, 2008]  PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Geovany Soto drove in seven runs and the Chicago Cubs overcame Alfonso Soriano's second dropped fly ball in Pittsburgh this season to rally for a 14-9 victory over the Pirates on Tuesday night.

The Cubs won their fourth in a row to move 32 games above .500 for the first time since they were 90-58 on Sept. 15, 1984. They trailed 8-7 before scoring seven times in the eighth against three Pirates pitchers. Craig Hansen (0-2) walked in the tying and go-ahead runs while walking three consecutive batters and Soto hit his second bases-loaded double in a span of five innings.

Soto also hit a solo homer, in addition to his two three-run doubles. He has 78 RBIs in his rookie season despite usually batting in the lower end of the lineup, and has 18 RBIs against the Pirates. He hit his 20th homer off Denny Bautista in the sixth.

The Cubs are 13-4 against the Pirates, who lost their season high-tying sixth in a row and 10th in 12 games.

The Cubs have scored 26 runs in the first two games of the three-game series, and have scored 10 runs or more six times against the Pirates this season.

Derrek Lee added two RBIs and Soriano had three hits despite making a second potentially costly defensive gaffe in PNC Park this season.

Soriano dropped Adam LaRoche's easy fly ball to put two on with none out in the seventh, and Doug Mientkiewicz followed one batter later with his first triple in more than two years to put the Pirates up 8-7. Soriano's dropped fly with two out in the ninth with the Cubs up led to a 6-5 Pirates' victory in 11 innings on May 25.

Soriano helped make up for his latest dropped fly with a single off Hansen immediately after Mike Fontenot singled off John Grabow to start the eighth. Hansen didn't retire any of the four batters he faced, throwing only six of 18 pitches for strikes.

Sean Marshall (3-3) pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the victory.

Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano got another hit, his 13th consecutive start with at least one, and drove in a run for his eighth start in a row but couldn't beat the Pirates as usual. He was 6-1 with a 3.47 ERA in 11 starts in PNC Park, only to leave after giving up eight hits and six earned runs in 4 1-3 innings.

Zambrano, a winner only once in five starts, fell behind 3-0 in a first inning that included Adam LaRoche's two-run double.

The Cubs, winners of 17 of 23 in August to open a five-game lead over Milwaukee in the NL Central, came back to take a 5-3 lead with a four-run fourth in which Pirates starter Ian Snell walked two and Mark DeRosa singled ahead of Soto's three-run, opposite-field double to right. DeRosa added an RBI double in the fifth for his 78th RBI.

Zambrano couldn't hold that 6-4 lead as the Pirates tied it in the fifth.

Snell, coming off a season's best seven shutout innings in a 4-1 win at St. Louis on Aug. 19, was lifted after needing 96 pitches while allowing five runs and five hits in four innings.

Notes: Pirates 3B Andy LaRoche, hitless in 24 at-bats, struck out as a pinch-hitter in the sixth. ... Soto is the seventh player in the majors this season with at least seven RBIs. His seven RBIs are a Cubs season high. ... Soriano singled and doubled in his first two at-bats and is 9-for-18 against Snell. ... Zambrano is batting .365.

[Associated Press; By ALAN ROBINSON]

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