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Eight runs enough as Cubs avoid sweep in Milwaukee

By Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune –

MILWAUKEE — Cubs manager Dale Sveum hasn’t had any luck against his former team, dropping five of the first six games against the Brewers heading into Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve probably played our worst baseball against a team that was struggling a little bit,” he said before the finale. “I think we kind of let them off the hook that way.”

(PHOTO: Milwaukee Brewers Cesar Itzuris is tagged out at home by Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto during the seventh inning on Sunday, May 13, 2012 at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.)

It looked like the Cubs were going to let the Brewers off the hook again Sunday when they blew their seventh save in 12 chances on an RBI infield hit by Taylor Green in the sixth inning.

But the Cubs wound up scoring in each of the last five innings to secure an 8-2 win, salvaging one game in Miller Park.

The Cubs improved to 14-20, knocking out 13 hits and scoring in five straight innings for the first time all year.

“That’s huge for us,” Reed Johnson said. “Everybody talks about runners in scoring position, but that just comes from getting hits with runners in scoring position. You get confidence, and the next guy feels like he doesn’t have to do everything because the guy in front of him drove in a couple runs already, and that’s how things kind of snowball.”

The Cubs are in dire need of an avalanche of runs after letting so many good pitching performances go to waste this season. Sunday Jeff Samardzija allowed one run on three hits over five innings, and surprisingly got lifted for a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning with the game tied 1-1.

But Johnson came through with a pinch-hit home run, giving the Cubs a brief lead. Sveum said pulling the plug on Samardzija after five innings and 91 pitches wasn’t really all that difficult.

“He was at his 90 pitches,” he said. “He pitched well numbers-wise, but the ball was up. You could tell it wasn’t coming out of his hand like it can. Time to pinch hit, time to take a shot. The bullpen was rested.”

After the Cubs blew the lead in the sixth, they scored in the seventh on Ian Stewart’s double and a throwing error by shortstop Edwin Maysonet on a Darwin Barney grounder. James Russell got out of a jam in the bottom of the inning, stranding runners on second and third, and Kerry Wood and Michael Bowden also added scoreless innings.

The Cubs added tack-on runs in the eighth and ninth to pull away. It was the first time they’d scored more than six runs since a 9-5 win in St. Louis on April 13.

Samardzija said he understood Sveum’s decision.

“When you have guys like Reed and them to pinch hit, especially in that situation with the top of the lineup coming up, it’s the way it goes sometimes,” he said.

The Cubs headed to St. Louis afterward, relieved they were able to get one win from Milwaukee. Brewers manager Ron Roenicke is a good friend of Sveum’s and has had his number this year.

“That would’ve been a tough sweep,” Sveum said.

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