Cubs-Pirates: Cubs Beat Up on Pirates Pitching in 12-3 Rout

The Cubs offense beat up the Pirates' pitching Tuesday evening as they scored 10 runs in the first five innings on their way to a 12-3 rout.

Kosuke Fukudome got the scoring started for the Cubs in the second inning when he drove in Jim Edmonds on a sac-fly. In the top of the very next inning the Cubs put up a four spot, the first run of the inning came in on a Derrek Lee single that drove in Alfonso Soriano.Shortly after Aramis Ramirez blasted a three-run homer to give the Cubs a 5-0 lead.

Later, in the top of the fifth the Cubs scored five runs off of Jason Davis. Ryan Theriot scored the first run of the inning on a wild pitch that was followed up by a Jim Edmonds double that drove in Lee. Two batters later Fukudome hit a two-run single that plated both Edmonds and Ramirez. The final run in the fifth came in on a Ted Lilly RBI single giving the Cubs a 10-1 lead

The Cubs tacked on a couple more runs later in the game, the first coming in the eighth inning when Henry Blanco grounded out to first which allowed Soriano to score. The final run of the game came in the ninth when Fukudome hit a RBI double which gave him four RBI on the night and gave the Cubs a 12-3 lead. Aramis Ramirez also had four RBI as he hit the big three-run homer in the third and got credited with the other RBI when Theriot scored on the wild pitch after Ramirez walked.

Ted Lilly put in seven innings allowing three earned runs on seven hits while striking out seven and walking only one. With the victory Lilly improved to 13-7 on the season. Jeff Karstens ,who pitched for the Pirates, put in just three innings of work where he allowed five earned runs on six hits. Karstens took the loss and fell to 2-3 on the season

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Tomorrow the Cubs will send Carlos Zambrano to the mound who is 13-5 with 3.29 ERA while the Pirates will send Ian Snell to mound who is 5-10 with a 5.60 ERA. Game time is set for 6:05 pm ct.