Cubs-Dodgers: Chicago Pulls Out 3-1 Victory in Los Angeles

The Cubs beat the Dodgers 3-1 behind a great pitching performance by Jason Marquis, who pitched six-and-one-third innings, allowing just one earned run on three hits en route to his fourth win of the season.

The Cubs got on the board early when Mark Derosa, who went two for three, hit a home run to give the Cubs an early 1-0 lead. He later added another RBI when he singled in Alfonso Soriano.

The Cubs' third run came on a Aramis Ramirez double, which drove in Mark Derosa in the fifth. That would be all the runs the Cubs needed to get the win.

Carlos Marmol pitched one-and-two-thirds innings where he allowed only one hit while striking out three. He did get into some trouble in the eighth when he had runners on first and second, but he found a way to retire the side to keep the Cubs up by two runs.

Kerry Wood came on in the ninth and had an easy one-two-three inning, where he struck out two to pick up his league leading 18th save.

The Dodgers lone run came in the first inning when Jeff Kent grounded out, allowing Juan Pierre to score. As for starter Brad Penny, he put in six innings of work as he allowed all three earned runs on six hits, while striking out five and walking three. With the loss, Penny fell to 5-8 on the season.

With the win the Cubs are now 16 games over with a 40-24 record, and have a two-and-a-half game lead on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Tomorrow the Cubs will have the day off before they start a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley. The matchups for the series are on Tuesday Ted Lilly vs. Tom Glavine, on Wednesday Ryan Dempster vs. Jair Jurrjens, and on Thursday it will be Sean Gallagher vs. Tim Hudson. Both Tuesday and Wednesday games will start at 7:05 PM CST. Thursday's game will have a starting time of 1:20 PM CST.