Cubs Rally to Extend Lead Over Brewers

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Aug 29, 2007 2:32PM

It took a four-run seventh-inning rally, but the Cubs took the first game of a critical three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers by winning 5-3 at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.

Jacque Jones, whom Cubs fans couldn't wait to unload earlier this season, drove in two of the runs with a key double during the seventh. With Alfonso Soriano on the DL and Derrek Lee's power missing, it's been Jones who has been the key to the Cubs offense of late. In August, Jones is hitting a strong .357 with 11 doubles, three home runs and 20 RBI.

Looking up at the Brew Crew most of the season, Tuesday's win now gives the Cubs a 2 1/2 game lead over their neighbors to the north and puts the Brewers below .500 for the first time since the first week of the season.

But the Cubs had better watch out for their neighbors to the south. The surging St. Louis Cardinals have won three in a row and leapfrogged the Brewers in the standings — they sit only two back of the Cubs, so even if the Cubs can sweep the Brewers they still have another foe with which to deal. The Cubs and Cards still face off five more times over the final month of the season, so there should be some real interesting baseball in coming weeks.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast.