Cubs leave town with sweep
PITTSBURGH — After needing the equivalent of three games merely to win twice in Pittsburgh, what a relief this regulation game was to the Chicago Cubs. Almost as big as the relief Jon Lieber gave them.
Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot hit two-run homers in Chicago's five-run sixth inning and the Cubs finished off a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh, winning 7-3 Thursday night to run their winning streak to five games.
Soto had three extra-base hits, including two doubles, among his second career four-hit game, and Derrek Lee also drove in two runs despite not getting a hit as the Cubs won their sixth in a row over the Pirates dating to last season.
Lieber (2-1) got the decision by pitching 4Z\c scoreless relief innings after starter Rich Hill needed 72 pitches to get through three innings, allowing three runs and three hits and walking four. Lieber pitched 7Z\c scoreless relief innings in the series, three of them during a 10-8, 12-inning win Monday in the Pirates' home opener.
"Without Lieber, we really would have had problems," manager Lou Piniella said. "We were looking for innings. ... (Hill) was all over the place. There was no use keeping him in there. It wasn't going to get any better."
Soto had a chance to hit for the cycle, but he didn't think of trying to stretch a double into a triple in the seventh. He grounded out in the ninth.
After emptying their bullpen in consecutive games, the Pirates needed a lot of innings from starter Matt Morris (0-1), who lasted seven but gave up 11 hits and seven runs, four earned.
"I tried to avoid thinking about that all day — the obvious thing is (to think), 'I've got to go 8, I've got to go 9, I've got to go 7, whatever it is,' and as soon as you start thinking like that, you can barely get out of the first," Morris said.
