Stars und Sternchen! » McCutchen hit his eighth homer and drove

PITTSBURGH -- Andrew McCutchen made a "minor" adjustment in the batters box a couple weeks ago hoping to give him a fraction of a second longer to see whats coming. Consider the experiment a success. McCutchen hit his eighth homer and drove in three runs to lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 6-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Monday night. "When I get the barrel to it, good things happen," McCutchen said. "Thats basically what Im doing." McCutchen drove a two-run shot to right field in the third inning then added an RBI-double in the fifth off Edwin Jackson (4-6) as the Pirates bounced back from two tough losses to Milwaukee over the weekend in which they left a combined 18 runners on base. There were no such problems while sending Jackson to his fourth loss in his last five decisions. "I got to do a better job of mixing up instead of getting beat with same pitch twice," Jackson said. "I let the guy whos the threat on the team beat me twice and you cant do that." Charlie Morton (3-7) allowed one run over seven innings to win for the third time in his last four starts after beginning the season 0-6. Ike Davis hit his fifth homer of the season while Starling Marte broke out of a lengthy slump with three hits. Starlin Castro went 3 for 4 with his eighth home run and two RBIs for the Cubs, who fell to 10-22 on the road, the worst mark in all of baseball. "We try to figure out what it is but we havent figured it out yet," Castro said. "You go back and see those games we play good at home and we should be playing that way on the road but were not." It wasnt exactly the best way to start a 10-game road swing for Chicago, which was coming off a successful 5-1 homestand that included the teams longest winning streak in more than a year. Any momentum generated at Wrigley Field vanished on a night Morton avoided the control problems that have plagued him much of the season. The right-hander came in with a major-league high 13 hit batters while averaging nearly 2.5 walks per start. Maybe it was the extra day of rest he asked for after feeling tired following a win over San Diego last week, but Mortons wildness vanished for seven innings at least. He didnt walk a batter, struck out a season-high seven and needed just 82 pitches to get 21 outs. "I dont think it was great control but I got some quick outs, that helps," Morton said. "Not so many deep counts. Not as erratic, my misses were more in the zone and I got away with them." The Cubs needed a grounder deflecting off the glove of shortstop Jordy Mercer to extend the sixth inning before finally scoring on Castros long double to right. All the run did was draw Chicago within 4-1, with most of the damage done by the reigning NL MVP. Marte, who began the night 0 for his last 23, doubled home Pedro Alvarez to give the Pirates the lead in the first. McCutchen pushed it to 3-0 in the third when he patiently waited as Jackson worked him away before reaching out and sending a pitch into the first row of seats in right for his fourth homer this month. McCutchen nearly did it again two innings later, lacing a double off the wall in right to score Travis Snider and give Morton all the cushion he would need. Bothered by some bad luck early in the season, Morton lowered his ERA to 3.14. NOTES: Pittsburgh 2B Neil Walker was scratched about an hour before the first pitch with abdominal pain and underwent an emergency appendectomy. The team placed Walker on the DL after the game and called up highly touted prospect OF Gregory Polanco from Triple-A Indianapolis. Polanco hit .347 with seven home runs in the minors this spring. ... Pirates RHP Gerrit Cole threw 25 soft-toss pitches on flat ground before the game. Cole, who leads the Pirates with six victories, was placed on the DL on Sunday with what the team is calling right shoulder fatigue. ... Chicago RF Ryan Sweeney made a rehab start for Class A Kane County on Monday night. Sweeney went on the DL May 3 with a right hamstring strain. ... The series continues Tuesday. Travis Wood (5-5, 5.04 ERA) starts for the Cubs against Francisco Liriano (1-6, 4.54). Wood is 2-4 with an 8.04 ERA on the road this season. Shaquem Griffin Jersey . -- D.A. Points was disqualified Friday from the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for using a training device while waiting to play the 18th hole at Pebble Beach. Rashaad Penny Jersey .The rookie goalie made 36 saves to help the Calgary Flames blank their Pacific Division rivals 1-0 on Saturday following a 48-hour ordeal that included lost baggage, a cancelled flight and a new pair of contact lenses. http://www.seahawksauthenticofficialonli...sly-jersey.html. -- One shot came out of bottom of a cactus, the other from the base of a desert bush with rocks scattered around it. Michael Dickson Seahawks Jersey . The San Antonio Spurs handled the conditions, and the team, and it sure helped when a suffering LeBron James couldnt make it to the finish. Rasheem Green Seahawks Jersey . Especially after he got ejected. "How many innings was that?" he wondered.Warrington coach Tony Smith believes the short-term loss of utility back Stefan Ratchford will be a bigger blow than the departure of Chris Sandow. Sandow has walked out on the club despite having 12 months left on his contract while Ratchford sustained a serious knee injury while training with England in the recent Four Nations Series. Sky Sports Black Friday sale Hey! Upgrade to Sky Sports now and get 12 months half price! He was about to do some stretching and squatted down to get ready when his knee locked, Smith said. It was all a bit of a shock because when he went in to see the consultant he was under the impression it was only going to be a bit of floating bone but it was worse than that. So he went in thinking it was going to be a couple of weeks operation and came out with a four-month operation. Scrum-half Chris Sandow has elected to cut short his contract with Warrington Id say hell miss at least the first four games and thats more of a blow than Chrissy. I was a bit shatttered when I heard about that one.dddddddddddd. That has more impact on us.Regarding Sandows decision to stay in Australia rather than return to the Wolves, Smith was phlegmatic about the whole affair.He said: I cant say Im heartbroken or even surprised or disappointed, the only disappointment is that it was a little bit late in our off season before he told his manager. Warrington head coach Tony Smith salutes the supporters after their Challenge Cup semi-final win over Wakefield Ive no idea what he will do, he might be taking up a boxing career, who knows? Chrissy wouldnt have planned his next move, he just does things off the top of his head.Im pretty confident well come up with a suitable replacement.Meanwhile, Smith has confirmed that loose forward Ben Harrison is not part of his plans for the 2017 season.Hell go out on a year-long loan, the coach said. Hes working through that at the moment.Upgrade to Sky Sports now and get 12 months half price. Hurry, offer ends December 4! 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