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| Marquis, Johnson lead Cubs over Blue Jays CHI CUBS 6, TORONTO 2 |
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TORONTO (Ticker) -- Jason Marquis didn't get the shutout or even a complete game, but he gave the Chicago Cubs a performance befitting his name. Marquis allowed one run and four hits in seven-plus innings as the Cubs used an early three-run home run by Reed Johnson to post a 6-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. Through seven innings, Marquis (5-3) yielded only one hit - a clean single to Lyle Overbay leading off the fifth. He tired in the eighth, however, and was pulled after giving three consecutive singles to load the bases. Marquis walked two and struck out only one. "The last three games he's pitched, they have all been winning efforts," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said "And today was the sharpest he's been. ... really good effort ... seven innings ... low pitch count, he threw strikes. A really nice game for him." Reliever Carlos Marmol struck out the first two batters he faced before walking Matt Stairs to force in a run. Bob Howry surrendered a run in the ninth. Johnson, whose playing time will increase due to Alfonso Soriano's broken hand, homered in the second inning off former teammate Roy Halladay (8-6) to stake the Cubs to a 4-0 lead. "I think all my other at-bats, I didn't have anybody on and the one time I had a couple of guys on," Johnson said. "I was fortunate to take a nice stroke to a ball that was inside. I thought it was a decent pitch." The defeat snapped a five-game winning streak for Halladay, who surrendered six runs in five innings, his shortest start of the season. However, all four runs that he gave up in the second were unearned. Mike Fontenot and Henry Blanco started the Cubs' two-out rally in the fourth with back-to-back singles, putting runners on the corners. Halladay induced Ronny Cedeno to hit a hard grounder to shortstop David Eckstein, but the ball caromed off Eckstein's glove and rolled into shallow center field for an error. Johnson followed by lining his third homer of the season over the left-field fence to give Marquis a four-run cushion. Halladay left a pitch out over the middle of the plate. "The toughest part was they got the pinch count up and the one bad pitch to Reed." Halladay said. "I would have liked to have it in more, but that's baseball sometimes." Mark DeRosa added an RBI single in the third, and the Cubs made it 6-0 in the fifth when Derrek Lee led off with a triple and scored on Jim Edmonds' grounder. Lee finished with three hits. |
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