Chicago's launching pad
CHICAGO — With the wind whipping out on a warm afternoon, the Chicago Cubs found the perfect conditions to pad their home run total and maintain their lead in the NL Central.
"It was a good day to hit. But you can't blame the wind. You still got to hit the ball," said Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez, who connected on a pair of three-run homers to lead a wild 13-8 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday.
"You can't look up there," Ramirez said of the wind gusting to 21 mph that was moving the flags. "If you try to hit home runs, I guarantee you won't hit them."
Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto also homered for the Cubs, who overcame a shaky performance from starter Jason Marquis to send the Pirates to their seventh straight loss.
Chicago, with eight games remaining, remained 1Z\x games in front of Milwaukee in the division. The Brewers beat Atlanta 4-1 on Friday night.
"You can't get excited. Anything can happen. Milwaukee is a good team," Ramirez said. "Hopefully we can separate ourselves from them right now, but you never know."
Ramirez hit a three-run homer in the first off Paul Maholm, a shot well over the left field bleachers. He delivered another three-run shot, his 25th homer of the season, off Franquelis Osoria (0-2) to break a 7-7 tie in the sixth. It came right after Pirates' second baseman Freddy Sanchez dropped a flip on a perfect double-play ball.
With Soriano at first and one out, Derrek Lee hit a hard grounder to short, but Sanchez couldn't catch the throw from Matt Kata that could have led to the side being retired. Instead, Ramirez capitalized on the miscue and put the Cubs ahead.
Two batters later, Soto hit a two-run homer off John Grabow, and the Cubs had a five-run lead.
"It was one of those things, it was a little quick and it gets away from you," Sanchez said. "It's going to happen. But I probably should've just tried to get one, then two."
