After getting out of a 2nd inning jam, Ted Lilly settled down to pitch 4+ scoreless innings & led the Chicago Cubs to a 5-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday afternoon from Wrigley Field.

Pittsburgh took their only lead of the game in the top of the 2nd inning after Ryan Doumit hit a lead-off double against Chicago starter Ted Lilly.

Andy LaRoche then drew a walk to put runners at 1st & 2nd with nobody out.

2 batters later, Brandon Moss walked to load the bases with 1 out for Chris Gomez, who struck out swinging.

Paul Maholm then singled to Ryan Theriot at shortstop, who was unable to get a throw off & allowed Doumit to score from 3rd base to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

With 2 outs & the bases loaded, Lilly then struck out Luis Rivas to end the inning.

The Cubs took the lead for good in the bottom of the 2nd inning after Aramis Ramirez hit a lead-off double against Pirates starter Paul Maholm.

Reed Johnson then singled to put runners at the corners with nobody out.

Johnson advanced to 2nd base on a wild pitch during Mark DeRosa’s at-bat, who struck out for the 1st out of the inning.

Geovany Soto then hit an RBI groundout to Luis Rivas at 2nd base & scored Ramirez from 3rd base to tie the game 1-1.

Ronny Cedeno then followed with a go-ahead RBI single to score Johnson from 3rd base & gave the Cubs a 2-1 lead.

Pittsburgh then had a chance to tie the game in the top of the 4th inning after Steve Pearce hit a 1-out single against Lilly.

Brandon Moss then drew a walk to put runners at 1st & 2nd with just 1 out.

Chris Gomez then grounded into a doubleplay to end the scoring threat.

The Cubs then doubled their lead in the bottom of the 4th inning after Reed Johnson reached 1st base safely on a bunt single off Maholm.

Mark DeRosa then singled to put runners at 1st & 2nd with nobody out for Geovany Soto.

Both Johnson & DeRosa were able to steal 2nd & 3rd base during Soto’s at-bat, who hit an RBI single to score Johnson & give Chicago a 3-1 lead.

Ronny Cedeno then hit into a doubleplay, but scored Soto from 3rd base to give the Cubs a 4-1 lead.

The Cubs scored their 5th & final run on Derrek Lee’s 5th inning sac fly to score Alfonso Soriano (who hit a lead-off double) from 3rd base.

Ted Lilly (11-6) gets the win for the Cubs after pitching 6 1/3 innings & allowing 1 run on 6 hits.

Paul Maholm (7-7) takes the loss for the Pirates after allowing 5 runs on 8 hits in 6 innings of work.

The Cubs will now look to win the series on Sunday afternoon at 1:20 PM cst from Wrigley Field, as ace Carlos Zambrano (12-4, 2.80) will be opposed by Pirates righthander Ian Snell (4-8, 6.04).

Zambrano is coming off a fantastic month of July in which he made 5 starts & posted a 4-1 record with a 1.78 ERA. In addition to this, Zambrano has been perfect at Wrigley Field with a 6-0 record in 11 starts & a 2.28 ERA.

The Cubs’ last home loss during a Zambrano start was ironically against Pittsburgh back on May 17th.

Snell is 1-6 in 11 road starts with a 8.12 ERA & is 1-3 in 8 day starts this season with a 7.58 ERA.

Snell has only beaten the Cubs once in 7 career starts, which came on August 28th, 2006 at Wrigley Field.

Signing off for now,