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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
CHICAGO -- Shane Andrews is on quite the wild ride, and he's
going to enjoy it as long as he can.
Andrews homered twice Wednesday, including his second three-run
homer in as many at-bats, as the Chicago Cubs outslugged the
Atlanta Braves 11-4.
|  | | Shane Andrews watches his three-run home run head out of the park in the first inning. |
The homers gave Andrews five for the year and 12 RBIs, putting
him -- for a few hours, at least -- among the NL leaders.
"I'm feeling good at the plate. I just want to keep it
rolling," he said. "It's awful early, though."
Glenallen Hill added another three-run shot, and Ricky Gutierrez
hit a solo homer for the Cubs, who won consecutive games for the
first time this season. Kyle Farnsworth (1-1) scattered four runs
and six hits in seven innings, and got a standing ovation when he
left.
The loss spoiled a big day by Chipper Jones, who drove in all
four Atlanta runs. The 1999 NL MVP homered twice and added an RBI
single.
"The wind's been blowing in here the last two days, and the
ball's been going out of the park," Jones said. "It used to be if
the wind was blowing in here, you didn't hit a ball out of here.
Now, bam, bam, bam -- every inning there's one.
"I don't know if it's the ball, I don't know if it's
pitching," he said. "I'm going to say it's the hitter."
Andrews isn't quite sure what's behind his sudden power surge,
and he's not about to question it. He hit a game-tying, three-run
homer in the bottom of the ninth in Monday's home opener, and he
didn't wait long to go deep Wednesday.
After former-Cub Terry Mulholland (0-2) walked Sammy Sosa and
gave up a single to Hill in the first, Andrews put a fastball in
the left-field bleachers. He was rounding first as it went out, and
he clapped his hands when he saw it clear the wall.
"I wasn't sure on the first one. I wasn't sure what the wind
was doing," he said. "I saw it go out of the park and I was
pretty excited."
Eric Young, who led off the first with a double, also scored on
Mark Grace's sacrifice fly to give the Cubs a 4-0 lead after the
first.
The Cubs rocked Mulholland again with another four-run inning in
the fifth. With Young and Sosa on base, Hill sent a 2-1 pitch deep
down the left-field line. It looked like it might hook foul, but
instead stayed just right of the pole.
That brought up Andrews, who sent Mulholland's 1-0 pitch over
the left field fence and bouncing down Kenmore Avenue for the 8-2
lead.
It was Andrews' fifth multihomer game of his career.
"It's never easy against this ballclub," Baylor said of his
old team. "We just kept adding on. Guys kept getting timely hits
and Shane had another unbelievable day."
For Mulholland, the day was unbelievably bad. He gave up eight
runs -- all of them earned -- and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings. It was
his second rough outing in a row; he gave up five runs (four
earned) in 3 2-3 innings last Friday.
"I stink. I'm embarrassed to be out there throwing the way I'm
throwing right now," he said. "It's not fair to these other guys
in the clubhouse to have to put up with that kind of performance
today."
Farnsworth allowed just one walk and an error over the first
three innings, but Jones spoiled his no-hit bid when he led off the
fourth inning with a home run.
Atlanta threatened to add a few more runs after Farnsworth
walked Bobby Bonilla and Walt Weiss, and Andruw Jones reached on
Andrews' error. But Farnsworth got Mulholland on a bloop single to
second to end the inning.
Chipper Jones drove in another run in the fifth on an RBI
single, and hit a two-run homer in the seventh.
"I felt good today, so I was going to go right at them,"
Farnsworth said. "You get in a groove and you keep on going."
Notes: The Cubs have now hit back-to-back homers twice this
season. Sosa and Grace hit consecutive solo shots against the Reds
on Sunday. ... Andrews has a team-high five errors to go with his
five homers. ... Jones has at least one hit in the Braves' first
eight games. ... The Braves are 1-9 in their last 10 games at
Wrigley, and have lost 12 of their last 14 to the Cubs.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Atlanta Clubhouse
Chicago Cubs Clubhouse
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