Hill had a career-high nine strikeouts in seven sharp innings and Ronny Cedeno hit a three-run homer to lead the Cubs over the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-1 Sunday.

Hill (2-5) yielded one run and five hits with one walk in his 11th career start, carrying over his success from Tuesday night when he beat the Arizona Diamondbacks for his first career major league win.

"Same mental approach, I just went out there and attacked, wasn't trying to be too fine," Hill said. "It was a mental side of being able to just go out there and pitch like I was in (Triple-A) Iowa and attack, that's it, that's the bottom line."

Hill was 7-1 with a 1.80 ERA in 15 starts this season for Iowa.

"He's effectively wild," said Jason Bay, who was 0-for-3 against Hill with two strikeouts. "When you see a lot of major league hitters swinging through fastballs in fastball counts you know he is doing something right."

The Cubs finished an 11-game homestand with an 8-3 record, the first time they have won eight games on a homestand since winning nine of 11 in May 1998. They have won 10 of their last 14 overall.

"Rich gave us everything we needed and it was a great way to close out this homestand," manager Dusty Baker said.

Ronny Paulino hit a solo homer off Hill in the seventh inning for the Pirates, who have the worst road record in the majors at 14-42. Paulino has homered three times in the last three games.

After an infield single to Aramis Ramirez and a two-out walk to John Mabry in the fourth inning, Cedeno hit his fourth home run of the season off Pirates starter Ian Snell to gives the Cubs a 4-0 lead. Ramirez finished 3-for-4 with two doubles.

In the third inning, Cedeno hit a leadoff single when left fielder Bay dove for the ball and trapped it. Third base umpire Fieldin Culbreth originally ruled that Bay caught the ball on the fly but Baker argued the call and got it reversed. Cedeno, who was already in the dugout, went back to first and later scored on Cesar Izturis' two-out single.

Snell (9-8) pitched six innings and allowed five runs and eight hits. He struck out six and walked two.

"I didn't give up any hard hits besides the home run. Everything was an infield hit or a bloop hit," Snell said. "Everything just seemed flat. The slider to Cedeno was flat and stayed up."

Notes: Pirates SS Jack Wilson was back in the lineup after missing three straight games with tightness in his right calf. ... Pirates 3B Joe Randa had two putouts on one play in the fifth inning. Jacque Jones hit a hard grounder to Wilson at shortstop. Wilson threw to Randa at third who got Ramirez in a rundown. Randa tagged Ramirez and then ran down Jones and tagged him out between first and second. Izturis, running on contact, scored from third on Jones' hit. ... Bay finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. ... Paulino went 6-for-10 in the three-game series and drove in six RBIs. ... Cedeno was 12-for-28 over the Cubs' homestand with two home runs.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Posted by nextyear00 on Sun Aug 06, 2006 10:21 pm

Finally the promise Hill showed at AAA is on display in the majors. Poential is coming forward and hopefully continues.



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Hill
Posted by eridude46324 on Mon Aug 07, 2006 12:16 am

Hill looked incredible today. Of course when playing the Pirates any pitcher can look great. Hopefully getting that first win was a stepping stone and he will start dominating in the Majors now.



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Posted by skelton20 on Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:11 am

I agree. Hopefully these last two starts are just a glimpse of things to come. We really need him to step up and perform like he has been expected to.



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Posted by brian_abbe on Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:51 am

You have to hope that Bay was right. Effectively wild is an oxymoron to me. The K's seem to be there, so the walks will be fine for now, like Zambrano. However, if the K's fall off, you start to have another Barry Zito on your hands which is the best case scenario. For now though, Hill appears to cut the mustard in the bigs.



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