The Cubs continued their offensive woes, but today it didn’t matter as Ted Lilly decided the Dodgers were not going to beat him. Lilly went 7 very strong innings, giving up only a solo YAK EM!!! to Matt Kemp in the 7th, en route to earning his 6th win on the year. Lilly, now 6-4, out dueled Chad Billingsley who fell to 6-3. Kevin Gregg, despite an error by third baseman Bobby Scales which put the tying run in scoring position, earned his 8th save on the season.
The Cubs wasted scoring opportunities early against Billingsley. The Cubs put men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs in the 2nd inning, but followed up with a lineout by Mike Fontenot, a strike out by Koyie Hill, and a pop out by Andres Blanco to let Billingsley off the hook. In the 6th inning, Kosuke Fukudome doubled and advanced to third on an error by Andre Ethier. However, Derrek Lee, Micah Hoffpauir, and Mike Fontenot all weakly grounded out to end the threat.
After Ted Lilly gave up a two out, solo YAK EM!!! to Kemp in the 7th, it appeared the Cubs offensive ineptness would haunt them again. Koyie Hill had other thoughts. Leading off the bottom half of the 7th, Hill launched the first pitch he saw, a hanging slider, from Billingsley into the right field bleachers to tie the game at 1-1. It was Hill’s 2nd YAK EM!!! of the season.
The rally in the 7th would continue. After Andres Blanco unsuccessfully bunted, Jake Fox and Alfonso Soriano hit back to back singles to put men on 1st and 2nd with one out. Bobby Scales then stepped up and blooped a single into left center to load the bases for Kosuke Fukudome. Fukudome produced a great at bat. The Fuker worked the count to 3-1, then lifted a fly ball to center allowing Fox to score on a sacrifice fly giving the Cubs a 2-1 lead.
Carlos Marmol worked the 8th for his 12th hold of the year. Gregg came on in the 9th, struck out James Loney and got Casey Blake to fly out to right. He then gave up a hit to left by Andre Ethier to bring the go ahead run to the plate in the form of Matt Kemp. Kemp hit a harmless bouncer to third baseman Bobby Scales, but Scales bobbled it and failed to record an out. With the tying run now in scoring position, Mark Loretta stepped to the plate with a chance to be a hero. Fortunately, Gregg got Loretta to bounce out to Blanco to end the game.
The Cubs improved to 24-23 on the year while the Dodgers fell to 34-16. The Cubs have won three of their last four and now turn to Ryan Dempster on Saturday to continue the modest momentum they have going.
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