CHICAGO — The St. Louis Cardinals traded for Matt Holliday, and the Cubs are hoping they can counter with the return of Aramis Ramirez, who showed on Friday why he's so valuable to the lineup.
Ramirez drove in three runs and tied a career high with four hits, including a tie-breaking solo homer, and Derrek Lee added a two-run homer to lift Chicago to a 8-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds.
"That's my job," Ramirez said. "I'm the cleanup hitter on this team, and that's my job to drive in runs in key situations, and I did it today."
Sidelined for two months with a shoulder injury, Ramirez had four RBIs in 12 games since returning to the lineup July 6. On Friday, he nearly matched that total with an RBI double with two outs in the first, an RBI single with two outs in the third, and a leadoff homer in the sixth, his sixth on the year, that snapped a 3-3 tie.
All of the hits came off Aaron Harang (5-11), who helped himself by hitting a three-run homer in the second, the first of his career.
"[Harang] just couldn't get Aramis Ramirez out," Reds manager Dusty Baker said.
The Cubs struggled offensively during the two months Ramirez was on the shelf.
"He knows how to drive in runs, he's done it his whole career," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of the third baseman. "He's a good professional bat in the middle of your lineup. We've missed that for a long, long time here. Get him going and it really helps out."
But will Ramirez's return be enough to catch the Cardinals in the National League Central?
"It seems like there's always a lot of hoopla on those deadline trades," Lee said. "But I don't recall those trades ever working out the way they foresee them happening. Holliday's a great player and a great addition to that lineup, but I feel like if we take care of business, we're going to be fine."
Actually, the Cubs acquired Ramirez on July 22, 2003, close to the Trade Deadline, and it seems to have worked out pretty well.
"I like our team," Lee said. "I just don't think we've played the way we're capable of. You look around the locker room and we have guys who have pretty good track records. If we can figure out a way to become consistent and play the way we're capable of, I like our chances."
Rookie Randy Wells (6-4) has helped. He gave up three runs over six innings for the win, and simply needs run support. He's 6-0 with four or more runs of support.
Wells was mad at himself about Harang's homer. After the Cubs took the lead on Ramirez's RBI double, the Reds had two on and one out in the second when Harang connected, giving the Reds a 3-1 lead. Harang is a career .087 hitter.
"It was a bad pitch," Wells said. "It was tough there, too. The team jumps out on top and you come back and give up three. I got the two quick outs there and it looked like we were getting out of the inning, and I didn't want to take any chances running a fastball in there. I made a bad pitch, a slider, and hung it, and he made a pretty good swing on it."
Mike Fontenot made it 3-2 with his eighth homer with one out in the second, and Ramirez tied the game in the third when he delivered an RBI single, driving in Kosuke Fukudome, who had doubled. The Cubs added on in the eighth, sparked by Jeff Baker's pinch-hit leadoff homer and Ryan Theriot's RBI single. Lee followed with his 19th homer.
"We were still in that game if we held them in the eighth," Dusty Baker said. "We can't trade runs with them late in the game like that."
Not if Ramirez keeps this up. He's 6-for-9 in his last two games. The third baseman did admit that he's still bothered at times by his left shoulder, which he dislocated on May 8.
"The thing that's always tough from the visiting side facing the Cubs, is there are guys you circle who you don't want to beat you, and 'Ramy' is one of those guys," Baker said.
During the Cubs' series in Philadelphia, Piniella hinted that the Cubs needed another left-handed bat. The Cardinals apparently are in win-now mode. The Cubs players say they have the right components, although they got more bad news Friday. All-Star Ted Lilly was scratched from Saturday's start because of soreness in his left shoulder.
"I feel like this is a good club," Theriot said. "It was good to start off with and it's still good. [The Cardinals] have gotten better adding [Mark DeRosa] and Matt, but we have a good one, too.
"It's time to start winning games and make our move. We've got about two months left to go in the season, and this is when teams either go forward or backward. It's looking like we're going in the right direction. Obviously, you'd like to have Ted and Geo [Soto], but it is what it is.
"Maybe we'll have another Randy Wells come up and throw the ball great for us."
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