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Friday, Sep. 22 3:20pm ET
Cubs top Kile, Cards 5-4 | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
CHICAGO (AP) -- A late Cubs' rally bailed out a wild Kerry Wood and cost Darryl Kile his 20th win. Kile fell short in his attempt to become the NL's first 20-game winner and the Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 Friday to snap an eight-game skid. "It's a nice taste in your mouth when you get a victory," said Ricky Gutierrez, who hit a game-winning two-run double in the ninth. "Lately we've had a lot of tough losses, and to get this one was a big relief." Kile, looking to become St. Louis' first 20-game winner in 15 years, took a 4-3 lead into the eighth inning but couldn't hold on. "Twenty is not all that important," Kile said. "It's kind of special, but if it doesn't happen no big deal." Wood walked eight of the 13 batters he faced before being removed after 1 1/3 innings. It was Wood's shortest outing in 48 career starts. "It was just one of those days," Wood said. "I didn't have my good stuff. I couldn't throw strikes. That's the bottom line." Roosevelt Brown and Shane Andrews led off with singles to knock out Kile. Reliever Jason Christiansen got Corey Patterson to ground into a force, but shortstop Edgar Renteria dropped the ball attempting to throw to first for a double play. Dave Veres then came on and got Damon Buford to hit a slow roller back to the mound. Veres bobbled the ball, allowing pinch-runner Chad Meyers to score ahead of the throw home, tying the game. "I was just in a hurry when I saw Meyers take off," Veres said. "Everything was in such fast motion it was hard to tell myself to slow down, focus and throw it." The Cubs then won it in the ninth. Eric Young singled with one out off Veres (3-5) and stole second. Gutierrez lined a double over the head of left-fielder Ray Lankford to score the winning run. "We haven't had (a win) in a while so everybody was acting pretty wild out there," said Gutierrez, whose team had lost its previous two games in the opponents' final at-bat when errors were made on routine grounders. The Cubs had lost 18 of 20 games. "It's just been a bad year for us, but we never gave up," Wood said. "This game means absolutely nothing to us (in the playoff chase), and we went out and did what we had to do to stay in the ballgame." Will Ohman (1-0) pitched a scoreless ninth for his first career win. Wood walked four in the first inning, forcing in a run. He gave up another run on a wild pitch. Wood opened the second inning by walking Kile. One out later, he issued consecutive walks to J.D. Drew, Jim Edmonds and Will Clark, forcing in another run to give St. Louis a 3-0 lead, before he was removed. Jamie Arnold replaced Wood and limited the Cardinals to one run on three hits over 6 2/3 innings of relief. Arnold entered the game with an 8.46 ERA in 10 games. "Jamie came out and got me out of the jam and proceeded to pitch great the rest of the game," Wood said. "You have to give all the credit for this win to Jamie Arnold." Patterson, a highly-regarded outfield prospect making his Wrigley Field debut, led off the second with a single. He scored on Young's two-out single to cut the Cubs' deficit to 3-1. The Cardinals extended their lead to 4-1 in the third on Fernando Vina's two-out RBI single. Damon Buford had a two-run double in the bottom of the third to make it 4-3. Kile, who had won five straight starts, allowed four runs and eight hits in seven-plus innings. He retired 12 of 13 batters after giving up three runs on six hits in the first three innings. Game notesThe victory was just the Cubs' second in 11 games against the Cubs this season. ... Only 29 of Wood's 70 pitches were strikes. ... Sammy Sosa missed his third straight game with a back injury and is doubtful for Saturday's game. ... John Tudor and Joaquin Andujar were St. Louis' last 20-game winners. They each won 21 in 1985. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard St. Louis Clubhouse Chicago Cubs Clubhouse RECAPS Baltimore 3 Boston 1
Chicago Cubs 5
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