McLouth’s homer topples Cubs, 7-6

His two-run shot in the ninth inning gave the Pirates the victory.

CHICAGO (AP) — Alfonso Soriano went deep again. And again. Nate McLouth’s homer was the decisive one, though.

He hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer off Carlos Marmol in the ninth to help the Pittsburgh Pirates overcome Soriano’s shots for a 7-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday.

The Pirates had lost 10 straight to the Cubs and were 0-7 against them this year before McLouth came through with the big hit.

Freddy Sanchez beat shortstop Ryan Theriot’s throw to first on a grounder up the middle with one out before McLouth’s drive off Marmol (1-1) to the basket above the right-field wall. Pittsburgh won for the ninth time in 12 games.

“Against a guy like that who has electric stuff as he has, you don’t try to do too much,” McLouth said. “You just try to put the ball in play because he’s got incredible stuff.”

He got a fastball and drilled his 12th homer and his second off Marmol, who had pitched 13 consecutive scoreless innings.

“You’re not perfect,” said Marmol, who has allowed two homers. “You’re going to make mistakes.”

Matt Capps gave up a two-out RBI single to Ryan Theriot after Soriano doubled for his fifth hit of the game, but retired Derrek Lee on a fly to right for his 10th save in as many chances.

Damaso Marte (3-0) retired all three batters he faced in the eighth after Tyler Yates walked Aramis Ramirez.

Soriano has 20 hits in his last 37 at-bats, raising his average to .295 after a brutal start.

He tied a career high by leading off his fifth straight game with a hit when he lined a single to center and added an RBI single during a three-run second that gave the Cubs a 3-1 lead.

His solo shot to left off Zach Duke in the fourth made it 4-2, and he greeted Yates with another one that tied it at 5 in the seventh. That gave him seven homers in the week and 10 for the season. It was the second time he hit two homers in back-to-back games, the first coming for Texas against Cleveland on May 6-7, 2005. And he became the first Cubs player with back-to-back multihomer games since Ramirez at Washington on July 21-22, 2006.

The five-hit game was Soriano’s first since June 4 against Milwaukee, and his career-high is six for Texas against Detroit on May 8, 2004.

“I’m very confident in myself,” said Soriano, who spent the last two weeks in April on the disabled list with a strained right calf. “I had a bad month in April. I said when I come back, I want to come back strong.”

And that’s exactly what he did.

“Some people think he’s a dumb hitter but he’s not,” Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano said. “He’s a smart hitter and at the beginning, people booing him were doing no good. Everybody in baseball can go through slumps, bad times. Superstars do what Sori’s doing right now.”