GAME THREAD: NL: CHICAGO CUBS (25-32) at ATLANTA (33-27)

Hill pitches Cubs past Braves

<h3>CHICAGO CUBS 2, ATLANTA 1</h3>ATLANTA (Ticker) -- Rich Hill continued his mastery of theAtlanta Braves.

Hill tied a career high with 11 strikeouts in eight masterfulinnings and Alfonso Soriano scored and drove in a run to leadthe Chicago Cubs to a 2-1 victory over the Atlanta Braves in theopener of a four-game series on Thursday.

Pitching in his first full season, Hill (5-4) has emerged as oneof the bright spots in an otherwise gloomy season for the Cubsand has been one of their more reliable starters. Coming intoThursday, he was second to free-agent acquisition Jason Marquisin team ERA with a 2.89 mark and logged just 8 2/3 innings lessthan staff leader Carlos Zambrano, in two fewer starts.

"Tonight was just a good night," Hill said. "I felt good fromthe start. You get a couple of games like this every year."

Hill has been effective against the Braves in his brief majorleague career, sporting a 2-0 career record against Atlanta inthree major-league starts and allowing just two earned runs in20 2/3 innings.

"He did a good job executing his pitches," catcher MichaelBarrett said. "He made my job easy."

Ryan Dempster pitched a perfect ninth for his 12th save of theseason.

"That's why you have guys who come in and close the game," Hillsaid. "Ryan's been great at doing that."

Hill allowed one run and three hits and walked one with 11strikeouts. He needed 108 pitches, 75 strikes, to dispatch of astruggling Atlanta lineup, which he went to a three-ball countagainst just two times.

The only blemish to Hill's night occurred in the fourth, whenAndruw Jones smashed the lefthander's 1-0 offering the oppositeway over the right field wall for his 10th homer of the season.

"I got a couple pitches to hit and put them where the guy'snot," Jones said. "I got lucky."

Hill settled down to retire the next seven batters beforeissuing a free pass to Kelly Johnson in the third.

"We stayed with the breaking ball," Hill said. "That was thegame plan from the beginning. The one mistake I made (to AndruwJones), I threw him a two-seamer."

Atlanta garnished a modest threat in the fourth. Jones laced aone-out single and stole second base. But Hill induced JeffFrancoeur to fly out and struck out Matt Diaz to end the threat.

"He's a tough lefty," Jones said. "You can't figure him out.Today was the first two times I got two hits off of him. He'sgot that curveball that he can throw for strikes and balls. Youhave to be patient and lucky."

Soriano provided Hill all the run support he needed, leading offthe game with a triple into the right-center field gap. Hescored on a single by Felix Pie. One inning later, Sorianoextended the Chicago lead to 2-0 when he drove in Ryan Theriotwith a single.

Atlanta starter Chuck James (5-5) rebounded from a rough firsttwo innings - where he needed 39 pitches - to hurl an efficientgame. The Atlanta native allowed two runs, six hits and threewalks while striking out two in seven innings.

"That's the way it goes sometimes," James said. "I went outthere and pitched well and he pitched a little bit better. I'lltake seven innings, two runs any day."

James retired 11 straight batters from the second through thesixth innings and allowed just one hit after the second.

But this one was all about Hill, who hurled a gem and made lifeeasy for Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who was returning from hisfour-game suspension.

"We're playing a little bit smarter now," said Piniella, whoseclub has won four of five games since his well-publicizedejection on Saturday. "Winning cures everything."

Diaz had the other hit for the Braves, who have dropped six ofseven at home.