Pirates 8 Cubs 5

Observations on tonights game from Section 129:

Matt Lawton needs to be on the bench. He puts forth absolutely no effort whatsoever in playing the outfielder and cost the Bucs a run tonight.

David Ross? 2 home runs? He is killing the ball, and will probably fail a steroid test by May 15th.

Mackowiak with some big hits, see what happens when he plays every day, Lloyd?

Ty Wigginton finally sits out a game and what happens? Two hits for Bobby Hill including a game winning double.

Perez didn't look bad. He had it against the good hitters (striking out Aramis on a pitch with a smoke trail with the bases loaded and one out) but let the bad hitters beat him (homers for Dubois and Nefi Perez, a murder's row). The fifth run was not his fault as Lawton and his sloppy play turned a single or flyout into into a triple.

Meadows, Mesa, Torres. 3 innings, no runs, 25 pitches. Mesa hit 96 on the gun. Nuff said.

They fell behind 5-3 after five and half and actually showed life, scoring 1 in the 6th and 7th to tie things up before rallying for three in the ninth with a bunch of clutch hits from Mackowiak, Daryle Ward(????) , Bobby Hill, and Chris Duffy (first big league hit is an RBI double in the gap).

All in all a really, really good come from behind win. They showed a spark of life that's been missing so far this year. The offense came alive against Zambrano, someone that killed them last year, Perez was sufficent and the pen was absolutely lights out. 29,000 loud fans defintely got their moneys worth tonight.

ESPN summary here