Alfonso Soriano has already forgotten his worthless month of April in which he hit nary a home run, and has quickly moved on to the month of May where he appears to be heating up. For the second consecutive day, Soriano belted a solo home run, and also collected a single and double to boost his average to .310, helping the Cubs to an easy 7-1 win over Pittsburgh.

A position switch to his more familiar left field spot from center and perhaps a healthy dose of Pirates pitching has seemingly cured Soriano's early season hitting woes. His atrocious base running, however, is another story.

"I've been watching old tapes of my countryman Moises Alou for some helpful pointers," said Soriano, who was picked off for the third time on the young season Wednesday. "That guy can really rake it at the plate, but copying his base running like I've been doing may not be such a good idea."

The renaissance of starting pitcher Jason Marquis continued, as he hurled eight outstanding innings, walking none while striking out five to pick up his fourth win of the season.

The good news is that the Cubs finished the round trip at 4-1, drawing to within two games of .500. The bad news is that the team returns home to the Unfriendly Confines of Wrigley--where they can't hit their way out of a paper bag--for a weekend set against the hapless Washington Nationals, who will undoubtedly pound them senseless for three straight games.

Number of the Game: 7
Base-on-balls taken by Cub batters in the series finale against Pittsburgh on Wednesday, officially maxing out their quota of free passes for the month of May.

By Jeremy Barewin