Castro's Bat Impressive As Cubs Beat Pirates 6-3
PITTSBURGH (AP)-- Ryan Dempster won for the first time in five starts despite arguing with manager Mike Quade after he was lifted after five innings, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-3 on Saturday night.
Dempster (6-6) was pitching on nine days' rest after being scratched from his scheduled start Monday because of back pain. He was cleared to start Saturday after making it through a pregame workout Friday without incident.
He allowed three runs on seven hits and three walks in five innings and was seen throwing equipment and arguing vehemently with Quade when he was pinch-hit for to lead off the sixth.
Starlin Castro went 3 for 5 with a run and an RBI for the Cubs, who have won two of three.
A night after blowing his sixth save, Carlos Marmol pitched the ninth for his 19th save of the season.
Matt Diaz entered the game in the fourth and had two doubles and two RBIs for Pittsburgh, which came in with a chance to climb into first place.
Pittsburgh, which had won four of its previous five, needed a win and a loss by the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday to move into a tie for the National League Central lead. It's only early July, but for a team that has suffered through 18 consecutive losing seasons and lost 105 games last year, that would have been heady stuff.
The Pirates are starting to make inroads in a sports market that usually only turns its attention to them when the Steelers and Penguins are out of season or not making news. The crowd of 39,235 Saturday -- buoyed by a popular postgame concert and fireworks and laser show -- was the 10th sellout of the season at PNC Park, the most since the ballpark's inaugural season in 2001.
But starter Kevin Correia didn't give Pittsburgh much of a chance on a night he could have tied Atlanta's Jair Jurrjens and the Yankees' CC Sabathia for the majors' lead in victories with 12.
Correia (11-7) labored through his shortest start of the season. He allowed five runs on nine hits in 3 2-3 innings.
Chicago scored during each of the four innings Correia pitched. The Cubs took a 2-0 lead in the first on an RBI single by Marlon Byrd and a wild pitch by Correia that scored Castro. Kosuke Fukudome, Alfonso Soriano and Castro had RBI singles the following three innings.
Fukudome had two hits and two runs, Pena had two hits, a run and an RBI and Barney went 2 for 4 with two runs for the Cubs.
Pirates rookies Alex Presley and Michael McKenry each had two hits and scored a run.
Presley scored on Neil Walker's groundout in the bottom of the third, and Diaz hit a ground-rule double down the right-field line that scored Garrett Jones and McKenry in the fourth.
Jeff Samardzija, Kerry Wood and Marmol combined to throw four scoreless innings to close out the Cubs' victory, their second in their past eight at PNC Park.
Notes: Before the game, Quade said the Cubs will open the second half of the season's first three games with a rotation of RHP Matt Garza, Dempster and RHP Carlos Zambrano. ... During the fourth inning, the Pirates announced on the jumbotron that OF Andrew McCutchen was named to the NL All-star team, drawing an ovation and a curtain call. McCutchen will replace injured Brewers OF Ryan Braun.
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