Kerry Wood and the Cubs had some fun with their team’s 10,000th victory. Kidding aside, the way these lovable losers are playing, Chicago might find itself celebrating the one win that’s eluded the franchise for a century – a World Series title.
Ryan Theriot’s RBI single off Kip Wells with two outs in the 10th inning gave Chicago a 7-6 win over the Colorado Rockies for their sixth straight win.
“Really, I didn’t remember a lot about the first 9,000,” said Wood, who got what Theriot termed “a cool benchmark” win as the Cubs improved to 15-6 for just the fourth time in the past 100 years.
The Cubs beat Louisville for their first win on April 25, 1876, and despite not having won a World Series since 1908, Chicago has a winning percentage above .500 (10,000-9,465).
Theriot’s single to right field scored pinch-runner Mike Fontenot from second base as the Cubs joined the Giants as the only franchises in major league history to reach 10,000 wins.
“We’ve been picking each other up all year,” Wood said. “That’s why we are in the position we’re in. It’s somebody different every night. … I don’t think we could predict the way we were going to be swinging the bats right now. I don’t think we have more than one guy in the lineup hitting under .300.”
In other NL games, it was: Pittsburgh 7, St. Louis 4; Florida 7, Atlanta 2; N.Y. Mets 7, Washington 2; Houston 9, Cincinnati 3; Milwaukee 5, Philadelphia 4; San Francisco 3, San Diego 2, 13 innings and the L.A. Dodgers 8, Arizona 3.
Both teams blew ninth-inning leads with their closers, but it was the Rockies who ended up losing their fourth straight game when leading after seven innings.
Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run homer off struggling Colorado closer Manny Corpas with one out in the ninth to put the Cubs ahead 6-5, but Ryan Spilborghs tripled home the tying run off Wood with two outs in the bottom half.
Wood (2-0) struck out Clint Barmes to strand the winning run at third, then picked up the win when the Cubs rallied off Wells (1-1).
Carlos Marmol pitched a perfect 10th for his second save in as many chances.
Corpas blew his second straight save and fourth in eight chances just hours after his manager gave him a vote of confidence. Last year, he converted 19 of 20 saves, then signed a big contract over the winter.
Clint Hurdle might be pondering a switch now, but he wasn’t ready to reveal anything just yet.
“I’ll talk to the player first,” he said. “I need to think things through, talk to the people I need to talk to, have a conversation, and when we make a decision we’ll let you guys know right away.”
Mets 7, Nationals 2
At Washington, Johan Santana (3-2) hit two doubles and went seven solid innings, allowing seven hits, none after the fourth inning. As a batter, he had the second two-hit game of his career.
Tim Redding (3-2) had a two-run double for Washington.
Marlins 7, Braves 2
At Atlanta, Mike Jacobs hit a two-run homer, Hanley Ramirez added a solo shot off Jeff Bennett (0-1) and Dan Uggla had three hits including a two-run triple in the ninth for Florida.
Andrew Miller (1-2) pitched five innings and gave up nine hits.
Pirates 7, Cardinals 4
At Pittsburgh, Jose Bautista and Doug Mientkiewicz had RBI singles during a three-run eighth inning, and Pittsburgh erased a four-run deficit to beat St. Louis.
Jason Bay added a two-run homer for Pittsburgh, which has won two in a row after snapping a six-game losing streak.
Damaso Marte (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings in relief to earn the win, and Matt Capps pitched a perfect ninth for his sixth save. Anthony Reyes (1-1) was the loser.
Astros 9, Reds 3
At Cincinnati, Kazuo Matsui sparked Houston’s seven-run rally with a two-run single, and the Astros coasted to their fourth straight victory.
Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 597th career homer off Chris Sampson (1-2), the only bright moment for the struggling Reds, who changed general managers before the game. Walt Jocketty took over for Wayne Krivsky.
The Astros knocked Bronson Arroyo (0-3) out of the game by sending 11 batters to the plate in the fourth inning for seven runs.
Brewers 5, Phillies 4
At Milwaukee, Prince Fielder hit a pair of two-run homers off Philadelphia ace Cole Hamels (2-3), including a go-ahead shot in the eighth for Milwaukee.
Mitch Stetter (1-0) pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth to get the win.
Giants 3, Padres 2, 13 innings
At San Diego, Trevor Hoffman blew his second save in six opportunities and the Giants went on to beat the slumping Padres.
Rookie Emmanuel Burriss doubled off Glendon Rusch (0-2) leading off the 13th and scored the go-ahead run on Fred Lewis’ single. The Giants’ rally came four innings after Hoffman couldn’t hold the lead for what would have been Greg Maddux’s 350th career victory.
Brian Wilson got his sixth save in seven chances. Keiichi Yabu (2-1) pitched two-thirds of an inning for the win.
Dodgers 8, Diamondbacks 3
At Los Angeles, James Loney had a pair of RBI singles, Chin-lung Hu singled home two more runs and the Dodgers handed Dan Haren his first loss of the season.
Derek Lowe (2-1) was removed after five innings for precautionary reasons because of tightness in his elbow, but is expected to make his next scheduled start.
Takashi Saito got four outs for his second save.
Haren (3-1) was charged with six runs – five earned – and nine hits in 4 2-3 innings. It was the most runs the right-hander allowed in 42 regular-season starts since Sept. 18, 2006.
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