Lilly's revenge
The Cubs started their longest home stand of the season (10 games) Friday afternoon and it didn’t take long for them to get comfy.
A Few Good Men rip After Arizona’s Chris Young went yard off Ted Lilly, again, to give the D-Backs a 1-0 lead, the lefty starter was lights out and Chicago went on to win 3-1.
Lilly struck out 10 over seven innings and he didn’t surrender a hit after the third inning. Not only does this win continue his run of solid starts, but it was cathartic for Lilly, who last squared off against Arizona in last year’s National League Divisional Series.
We all know how well that ended up.
Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune
And it felt like it would be more of the same after Young hit his first-inning home run. But Lilly’s glove stayed on his hand and the Cubs slayed the league’s best team, at least in the first game of the series.
The friendly confines have been very friendly to Chicago this year. The Cubs are now 12-6 at home and just 8-9 on the road. Since this is just the first of a 10-game home stand, Chicago just may pick up some of the momentum it lost over the last couple of weeks.
At the plate, Lilly tied the game with a fifth-inning single and teammate Alfonso Soriano gave the Cubs the lead for good with an RBI double in the following at bat. Derreck Lee, who has been a slump as of late, went yard in the eigth inning to give Chocago some insurance it eventually wouldn’t need.
This was a great win for the Cubs. Great pitching and timely hitting against the league’s best team may be what Chicago needs to give it that spark to take back the central division lead. Paired with a Cardinals loss, the Cubs are now just one game back in the standings.
Now Chicago relies on its best starter, Carlos Zambrano, to keep the positive juju going at Wrigley. If the Cubs can scratch out another win, then manager Lou Piniella’s decision to skip Jason Marquis scheduled start will be a genius move.
