CHICAGO (AP) — Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones both homered and set career highs with five hits each, leading the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 10-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Friday.
The Pirates broke loose at the plate after four straight losses and back-to-back shutouts at Cincinnati. They scored three runs in the first inning, then rallied from a 6-4 deficit.
Jones also doubled and drove in five runs. He broke an eighth-inning tie with a three-run homer off Carlos Zambrano, connecting right after his long drive was barely foul.
McCutchen scored five times and stole two bases. He hit a solo home run in the ninth, sending Chicago to its eighth loss in 10 games. That skid includes a three-game sweep at Pittsburgh last week.
Zambrano (1-3) came on in the eighth and immediately ran into trouble.
He hit Andy LaRoche leading off before McCutchen singled. Jones followed with a drive into the tight, right-field corner that was called foul, and Pirates manager John Russell came out to ask about the ruling.
Jones then drove a 3-2 fastball over the right-center field wall for his fifth homer, making it 9-6. And when a double by Ryan Doumit and single by Lastings Milledge followed, fans really let Zambrano hear it, showering Big Z with boos.
Evan Meek (2-1) got the win, striking out four in two scoreless innings of relief before Octavio Dotel pitched the ninth.
Alfonso Soriano had two hits for Chicago, scoring two and driving in two runs. Marlon Byrd hit a solo homer that made it 6-4 in the fourth, but the Cubs got nothing the rest of the way against four relievers after a shaky start by Brian Burres.
Chicago's Tom Gorzelanny lasted five innings, giving up a season-high five runs and allowing nine hits in his second straight start.
Burres, who pitched three-hit ball over seven scoreless innings in his previous start against Chicago, wasn't much better, allowing six runs and seven hits in four innings. He had thrown 13 1-3 scoreless innings.
The Pirates came in tied for 28th with Seattle in runs and had gone 19 scoreless innings before getting an RBI single from Andrew McCutchen, bases-loaded walk by Milledge and sacrifice fly by Steve Pearce. But that lead unraveled in a hurry.
Pearce left the game in the fifth inning with soreness behind his right knee.
NOTES: Immigrant rights activists protested outside Wrigley Field, saying the Cubs should move their spring training facility out of Arizona. Members of the group are upset with a stringent new immigration law in Arizona that they believe encourages racial profiling. They also don't like the Arizona Legislature's failure to fund a new spring home for the team in Mesa. ... Pittsburgh's Aki Iwamura is now hitless in his last 24 at-bats after going 0 for 6. ... The Pirates have won six straight against the Cubs. ... "American Idol" finalist Lee Dewyze of suburban Mount Prospect, Ill., threw out the first pitch.
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