Cubs 4 Pirates 2

Different day, same game. Pirates have an early chance to pile runs on the Cubs starter (Greg Maddux today) and come up a key hit short of a rally (instead of 4 or 5 runs in the 2nd, they get two). The Cubs then slowly come back and tie the game up (this time thanks mostly to the Pirates inability to play in the field). Today Mark Redman had trouble in the 7th and worked out of a jam with no runs scoring. Again, like with Kip Wells yesterday only an inning later, Lloyd brings him for one more inning (much to the dismay of every single Pirates fan watching and pretty much most of the Pirates themselves I'd guess) and loses the game. When Lloyd moves to double switch, he again moves Mackowiak to third and puts Sanchez at second base, keeping Bobby Hill on the bench yet again. Sanchez rewarded him with a groundout. The next time the pitchers spot came up was the 9th, as the tying run. Bobby Hill isn't even in the dugout at this point. Daryle Ward hits into a double play, game over (to the surprise of absolutely nobody).

Two days in a row, two games where the general feel was that if the Pirates had put forth any effort at all they would've won. Today a run scored while Matt Lawton let a single bounce past him, Ty Wigginton let a scorcher off the bat of GREG MADDUX handcuff him at third (if a scorcher is a slow ground ball), and the Pirates only rally was started with Mark Redman's 3rd career hit. That's right, Maddux put down 10 hitters in a row from the end of the second through the sixth, but somehow Mark Redman figured him out.

Today's only highlight: Greg Maddux smashes a ball past Wigginton (a separate occasion from Wigg's error) and casually jogs around first and into second, only to be thrown out by Jack Wilson (who had no business being near the ball, but is apparently one of two Pirates showing effort lately) by about 15 feet. Bob Walk immediately follows that with, "Greg, if that's all the faster you can run, your double hitting days are over."

ESPN summary here