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Cubs' Lilly Silences Arizona's Bats

POSTED: 6:09 pm EDT May 9, 2008

(Sports Network) - Ted Lilly tossed seven brilliant innings, and Derrek Lee homered as Chicago downed Arizona, 3-1, in the opener of a three- game set.

Lilly (3-4) allowed just one run on three hits, while walking two and fanning 10 for the Cubs, who have won two of their past three games. Carlos Marmol threw a scoreless eighth and Kerry Wood earned his sixth save of the year by hurling a perfect ninth to finish things.

"I felt good. I felt pumped up," Lilly said. "It is my responsibility to keep up with the other starting pitcher and I was able to mix up my pitches and change speeds."

Lilly and Alfonso Soriano drove in a run apiece for Chicago.

Chris Young homered to account for the Diamondbacks only offense. Stephen Drew, Chris Snyder and Augie Ojeda each recorded a hit for Arizona, which has lost two of three but still sports the best record in the big leagues, 23-13.

Dan Haren (4-2) was the hard-luck loser for the D-Backs, surrendering just two runs on five hits in seven innings.

"I really had good stuff," Haren said. "My stuff was there all day. Even though I lost the game, I feel like I am getting back to my normal way of pitching."

Trailing 1-0, the Cubs finally got to Haren with a two-out rally in the fifth. Mark DeRosa started things with a double to left and Haren intentionally walked Reed Johnson in order to pitch to Lilly, who promptly singled up the middle to even things. Soriano followed with an RBI double down the left field line to make it a 2-1 game.

"That was fun," Lilly said of his big hit. "I think (Haren) threw it right into my swing. It's important to put the bat on the ball. You are going to get some big at-bats during the season."

Arizona looked like it might get something started against Marmol in the eighth when Ojeda, a pinch hitter, led off the inning by singling to right.

But, with the Diamondbacks playing hit-and-run, Marmol punched out Eric Byrnes and Ojeda, despite having the bag stolen, was ruled out at second when Byrnes was also called for batter's interference after getting in the way of catcher Geovany Soto's throw to second.

Chicago added a much-needed insurance run in the home-half of the eighth when Lee drove a Juan Cruz hanging slider over the wall in left-center for his ninth home run of the year.

The Diamondbacks jumped on top in the first when Young belted a two-out, solo homer to left, his ninth of the year.

Game Notes

Before the game, the Cubs activated left-handed pitcher Scott Eyre from the 15-day disabled list and optioned left-handed pitcher Sean Marshall to Triple- A Iowa...This was the first meeting between the teams since last year's National League Division Series. The 2007 NL West champion Diamondbacks easily handled the Central-winning Cubs during that postseason skirmish, as Arizona swept the best-of-five series and clinched a berth into the NLCS with a 5-1 victory at Wrigley Field in Game 3...The Diamondbacks also won four of their six regular-season matchups with Chicago and are 16-6 against the Cubs (including last year's postseason) since the start of the 2005 campaign.


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