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Saturday, Jul. 29 4:05pm ET
Cubs' Wood evens record at 6-6 | |||||
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GAME LOG
CHICAGO (AP) -- The ball bounced in Kerry Wood's favor Saturday. Wood hit a two-run single over second baseman Jeff Kent to spark a six-run fifth inning and lead the Chicago Cubs over the San Francisco Giants 8-1. "Today, my mechanics felt better than they have the last few starts," he said. "There are several things I can take out of this. I'd like to get a little more command from my fastball." Wood (6-6), who has won three straight starts for the first time since July 21-31, 1998, gave up one run and three hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked five. "I thought he was much more consistent today with his mechanics and that's what we've been working on with him," catcher Joe Girardi said. "Everybody expects him to strike out 15 every game. Each day he goes out there, it's a big plus for this team. He's going in the right direction." Wood, coming back from elbow surgery, has pitched six or more innings in 11 of his 15 starts. "I'm not going out there trying to be the pitcher I was. I'm going out there to get guys out," he said. "I'm not trying to strike everybody out. I'm trying to get outs any way I can." But it was his bouncing single over Kent that was the difference. "It was just a bad luck hop on Jeff, one of the worst hops I've seen in a long time," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "It was a perfect double play ball and it hit the lip or a rock. It opened the gate for everything else." Girardi also drove in two runs for the Cubs, who won for the 14th time in their last 18 games. Kyle Farnsworth got his first career save, allowing three hits in three innings. Russ Ortiz (5-10) lost his second straight start, giving up six runs, eight hits and five walks in four-plus innings. In his three previous starts, he walked five in 19 1-3 innings. "He wasn't nibbling," Baker said. "It seemed everything close was called a ball. You get a reputation of having control problems and you're not going to get a lot of close calls." Ortiz didn't buy that argument. "Calls can go either way," he said. "Some pitches were on the corners and some might have been up. It's not my concern. I still had to get ahead of the guys. That's pretty much it." San Francisco, which started the day a half-game behind first-place Arizona in the NL West, is 18-7 in July and 10-6 since the All-Star break. Kent hit a two-out RBI double in the first, but Ortiz needed 39 pitches to get through the bottom half as Chicago took a 2-1 lead on Henry Rodriguez's RBI single and Girardi's bases-loaded walk. Girardi chased Ortiz with an RBI single in the fifth and, one out later, Wood bounced a single over Kent for a 5-1 lead. Eric Young added an RBI single, and Scott Linebrink walked Mark Grace and Sammy Sosa with the bases loaded. Game notesSaturday's crowd of 40,320 was the second-largest at Wrigley Field this season. ... The Giants are 4-4 on a season-long 12-game, four-city road trip. ... Kent snapped an 0-for-10 streak with his first-inning double. ... San Francisco's Joe Nathan, on the DL with inflammation in his right shoulder, pitched a three-inning simulated game. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard San Francisco Clubhouse Chicago Cubs Clubhouse RECAPS Cleveland 14 Baltimore 3
Baltimore 4
Chicago Cubs 8
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