Game One Hundred Thirty-Three - Cubs 2 Pirates 0
WP - Jason Marquis (9-7) LP - Zach Duke (4-13) Save - Kerry Wood (27)

Lou Piniella's crew completed the 3-game sweep against the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon behind 7 shutout innings by Jason Marquis. Marquis picked up his third win of the season against the Bucs and gave his skipper a very strong outing on getaway day. The key to Marquis' success was he kept the ball down and most importantly....he did not issue a single walk. The best inning of the afternoon by Marquis came in the bottom of the 7th after his team handed him a 2-0 lead....a solid shutdown inning.

Carlos Marmol pitched around a lead off walk and struck out the last two batters he faced in the 8th. Kerry Wood picked up his 27th save of the season with a perfect 9th inning. Wood struck out two of the three batters he faced on 10 pitches.

Marquis, Marmol and Wood combined on a 5-hit shutout with only 1 walk and 7 strikeouts.

The Cubs scored 26 runs in the first two games but managed only 2 in the season finale against the Pirates. The Cubs had chances early and put the leadoff runner on base in three of the first 6 innings. Reed Johnson was in the middle of the action once again and his leadoff bunt single in the 7th led to the eventual winning run.

Mark DeRosa followed Johnson with a double to left. Ronny Cedeno hit a slow grounder to 3rd baseman Andy LaRoche and the only play was to first as Johnson broke with contact. DeRosa advanced to 3rd on the play and scored on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by Henry Blanco. Hank White popped up the low pitch down the 1st base line, the ball stayed fair and DeRosa scored standing without a throw.

Less than 14 hours after completing a long, ugly game....the Cubs wrapped up the season series with the Pirates (14-4) in just 2 hours and 17 minutes. The Cubs finished an important 9-game stretch against the Reds, Nationals and Pirates with a 7-2 record.

In a season full of 'firsts' and 'since', the Cubs improved to 33 games over .500 for the first time since 1945. The Cubs own a major league best mark of 83-50 as the stretch run begins on Thursday night at Wrigley against the Philadelphia Phillies....