ATLANTA (AP) -The Chicago Cubs had everything going their way.
Randy Wells held Atlanta hitless until the seventh inning. Alfonso Soriano led off with a homer, and Derrek Lee went deep in the eighth to make it 5-0.
An easy win, right?
Not so fast. These are the Cubbies, after all.
The Braves scored five runs on just two hits to send the game to extra innings, including Jeff Francoeur’s two-out, two-run homer in the ninth. Chipper Jones finished off the Cubs with a run-scoring single in the 12th, giving Atlanta an improbable 6-5 win Tuesday night.
r Lou Piniella said. “We gave that one to them, with a nice little ribbon.”
The Braves gladly accepted.
“These are character-builders,” Jones said. “We were dead in the water.”
Instead, it’s the Cubs who are flailing. They slipped back to .500 with their 11th loss in 15 games and wasted a brilliant performance by Wells, who didn’t allow a hit until Jones singled with two outs in the seventh.
“That’s baseball,” said Wells, still seeking his first big league win. “You can’t sulk.”
Filling in for suspended Carlos Zambrano, Wells certainly pitched well enough to break through. He faced the minimum – the only baserunner was erased on a double play – until Jones’ clean single to left.
Five innings later, Jones hit one to nearly the same spot off Aaron Heilman (2-3).
“The longer and longer you go with a guy having a no-no against you, the tighter the grip goes around the bat,” Jones said. “Once we got the hit out of the way, we started pecking away and we got a couple breaks.”
Garret Anderson started the comeback with his second homer in as many games, after failing to go deep in his first 31 games for Atlanta. The Braves scored twice more in the eighth without a hit.
n and walked Kelly Johnson to force in a run. Yunel Escobar’s sacrifice fly made it 5-3.
Francoeur, a former phenom now being mentioned in trade reports, drove a 2-1 pitch into the seats in left-center for just his fourth homer of the season.
“I worked for about two hours on the off day, hitting, trying to shorten my swing a little bit,” he said. “It paid off.”
Pirates 3, Mets 1
At Pittsburgh, Zach Duke pitched seven effective innings to beat Johan Santana, and Jason Jaramillo hit his first major league homer as the Pirates won their third in four games.
Duke (6-4) allowed one run and eight hits to lower his ERA to 2.62.
Santana (7-3) gave up three runs and seven hits in six innings for New York, which has lost three of four. The Mets have scored two runs or less in five of Santana’s 11 starts.
Phillies 10, Padres 5
At San Diego, Raul Ibanez homered twice and drove in five runs, and left-hander Antonio Bastardo won his major league debut.
Padres ace Jake Peavy allowed four runs before leaving after one inning, the shortest outing of his career, due to a viral upper respiratory infection.
Raul Ibanez hit his 200th and 201st career homers – both two-run shots – and Greg Dobbs also connected for Philadelphia, which won its fifth straight.
San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez hit his major league-leading 22nd homer.
Marlins 10, Brewers 3
i, Cody Ross hit a grand slam and Dan Uggla became the fastest second baseman to reach 100 career homers with a two-run shot for the Marlins.
Manny Parra (3-7) gave up 10 runs on 11 hits in four innings. Burke Badenhop (4-2) pitched five scoreless innings in relief of Anibal Sanchez, who was making his first start since May 7 because of a sprained shoulder and allowed one run and two hits in three innings.
Nationals 10, Giants 6
At Washington, Christian Guzman hit a tiebreaking RBI single during a six-run eighth inning and the Nationals avoided their first seven-game slide since starting the season 0-7.
Ron Villone (3-0) pitched 1 2-3 scoreless innings to get the win for the Nationals.
Cardinals 5, Reds 2
At St. Louis, Nick Stavinoha hit a two-run, go-ahead double in the sixth inning and stand-in starter Brad Thompson (1-1) worked five effective innings.
Albert Pujols had two RBIs for the Cardinals, who beat the Reds for the sixth time in the last seven games at Busch Stadium.
Bronson Arroyo (7-4) needed 98 pitches to get through five innings with the score tied, and then recorded only one more out in the Cardinals’ three-run sixth.
Astros 3, Rockies 2, 11 innings
At Houston, Miguel Tejada hit a game-winning homer off Josh Fogg (0-1) in the 11th inning to cap a three-RBI night.
game in the ninth with an RBI single and also had a run-scoring single in the fifth.
Dodgers 6, Diamondbacks 5
At Los Angeles, James Loney hit a tying three-run double in the eighth inning and Casey Blake followed with an RBI single to lead the Dodgers.
Dan Haren pitched seven innings of two-hit ball for the Diamondbacks and went 3-for-3 at the plate, leaving with a 5-1 lead before the Diamondbacks’ bullpen crumbled.
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