Cubs Complete Sweep Of Pirates With 4-2 Victory

September 9, 2012 12:00 AM " PITTSBURGH (AP) - Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to give the Cubs the go-ahead runs and Chicago completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 4-2 win on Sunday.

Soriano followed Anthony Rizzo’s leadoff single in the eighth with his second homer in as many days and 28th of the season, sending the first pitch from Jason Grilli (1-6) into the Cubs bullpen in left-center.

Josh Vitters and Anthony Recker each hit solo home runs for the Cubs in the fourth.

Chicago is 6-20 on the road since the All-Star break, with five of those wins coming at PNC Park. The Cubs had lost eight consecutive road games when they arrived in Pittsburgh.

Andrew McCutchen homered and Brock Holt had three hits for the Pirates, who have lost seven of nine and continue their freefall out of contention.

Pittsburgh (72-67) peaked at 16 games over .500 this season but now needs to go 9-14 just to avoid extending their North American major professional sports record of consecutive losing seasons to 20.

Pittsburgh loaded the bases with one out in the ninth, but Cubs closer Carlos Marmol struck out Gaby Sanchez and got Pedro Alvarez to fly out to left to earn his 18th save. "

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