Associated Press
CHICAGO ó Jake Fox went to his manager before the game and offered some reassurance. Then, he followed through and did what he promised.
“He said, ‘I got your back today, skip.’ Exactly what he told me,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said Saturday. “A couple of at-bats into it I was wondering, but he caught up in a hurry.”
Fox hit his first career grand slam and finished with a career-high five RBIs ó all in his final two at-bats ó to lead the Cubs to an 11-4 win over the New York Mets.
His bases-loaded homer finished Mets starter Bobby Parnell (3-7) during a six-run fifth inning, and Fox added an RBI double off Lance Broadway in the seventh.
“The pressure is on the pitcher because he has already gotten himself in a bad situation,” Fox said of his grand slam. “Whenever you are a guy who drives in runs, you’ve got to be able to come through in that situation.”
Chicago had 14 hits. Milton Bradley finished 3 for 4.
Parnell (3-7) gave up nine hits and eight runs in 4 2-3 innings. The right-hander has yielded 22 hits and 22 earned runs over his last three starts, a span of 122/3 innings.
“I made too many bad pitches and too many mistakes. It was a tough one to swallow and I’m just going to put it behind me,” Parnell said. “I know it’s going to be a process, a hard process. And there’s going to be some tough lessons learned. The only thing I want to do is keep the team in the game.”