Wood gives game as Cubs rally

CHICAGO (AP) — Andres Blanco hit a tying single and then scored the winning run on Kerry Wood's wild pitch in the 13th inning Saturday as the Chicago Cubs staged another wild comeback and beat the Cleveland Indians 6-5.

Luis Valbuena hit his second homer of the game, a solo shot in the top of the 13th inning, to give the Indians a 5-4 lead. But once again Wood, the former Cubs ace who spent a decade in Chicago, couldn't hold it.

After blowing the save in Friday's 8-7, 10-inning loss by giving up a ninth-inning homer to Derrek Lee, Wood (2-3) gave up a leadoff single Saturday to Kosuke Fukudome. He took off for second as Koyie Hill struck out and made it to third when Indians' catcher Kelly Shoppach threw the ball into center field for an error.

With the infield playing in, Blanco slapped a hard grounder past diving shortstop Valbuena for a single to tie the game. Aaron Miles then dropped a single into shallow left, sending Blanco to third, and Wood uncorked a wild pitch to send Blanco home.

It was Wood's fourth blown save in 12 chances and sent Cleveland to its fifth straight loss. David Patton (3-1), who gave up the homer to Valbuena, got the win.

The Cubs had rallied from a 7-0 deficit to beat the Indians on Friday. And they had come back from a 5-1 deficit with two at-bats left to beat the White Sox 6-5 on Thursday.

Pinch-hitter Micah Hoffpauir homered Saturday in the sixth for Chicago and Lee connected in the fifth, his fourth homer in three games. Jhonny Peralta also homered for the Indians.

Valbuena, the No. 8 batter who entered the game with a .204 average, hit a long solo homer to right in the fifth off Cubs starter Ted Lilly. That gave the Indians a 2-0 lead.

Hoffpauir's two-run homer off Tomo Ohka to put the Cubs ahead 4-3 in the sixth on a warm and windy day at Wrigley Field. But Cleveland tied it when Chicago reliever Carlos Marmol walked Peralta with the bases loaded in the seventh.

Peralta led off the sixth with his third homer of the season, a long drive to left that gave the Indians a 3-2 lead.

Cleveland's first two batters of the game, Jamey Carroll and Peralta, hit back-to-back doubles off Lilly for an early 1-0 lead.

Notes: Cleveland LF Mark DeRosa, who hit his leg against a brick wall in the Cubs' bullpen while chasing a foul fly Friday, was scratched from the starting lineup, but came up as pinch-hitter in the eighth and struck out with two runners on. ... Indians' CF Grady Sizemore took batting practice and did some throwing Saturday as he recovers on the disabled list from a sore left elbow. . ... Fukudome doubled in the sixth to snap an 0-for-23 skid and finished with four hits to tie a career high. ... Lee has a 17-game hitting streak.


by the associated press