Cubs pound defenseless Pirates
CHICAGO — For the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, it was flying practice. For the Chicago Cubs, batting practice.
Pilots prepared for the weekend's Chicago Air & Water Show by zipping their loud jets tantalizingly close to Wrigley Field's upper deck during Friday's second inning. The Cubs, meanwhile, were making noise with their bats.
"It was cool to watch, but it's hard to hit when you're expecting some bomber to fly over your head," Derrek Lee said. "It was a little distracting."
Apparently, not too distracting to the Cubs. They scored 10 runs in their first double-digit inning in more than five years en route to a 17-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
And the flyovers sure didn't seem to complicate things for Lee, whose seven RBI matched the career high he had set July 2 against Milwaukee. He had a two-run double and a bases-loaded walk in the big inning to go with an RBI single in the first and a three-run double in the fourth before coming out of the game.
Lee said that when he pulled into second base in the second inning, "they were saying, 'Uncle! It's too hot for us to be out there this long!' It was fun."
Kosuke Fukudome hit a three-run homer in the first for the Cubs, who last scored 14 runs in the first two innings of a game on June 7, 1906.
The Cubs sent 15 batters to the plate in the second, when every starter scored at least once. Winning pitcher Randy Wells walked, singled, drove in a run and scored twice in the inning.
Wells (9-5) later added a double and also held the Pirates to two runs over six innings.
Pirates starter Charlie Morton played down the impact of the flyovers.
"Everyone out there had to play through it, so I'm not looking at it as anything that affected my performance," he said. "I just didn't do anything right."
Morton (2-6) gave up 10 runs in one-plus inning before getting relieved by Chris Bootcheck, who allowed seven more runs in 2Z\c innings.
The last-place Pirates hadn't allowed as many runs since losing 19-4 to St. Louis May 20, 2000. They last surrendered 10 runs in an inning on Sept. 7, 2008, at San Francisco.
Pittsburgh has lost 11 of 12 and has dropped its last three games by the scores of 8-0, 10-1 and 17-2.
"Just embarrassing," Morton said.
