Cubs Win, and Cardinals Lose a Little Ground : Maddux Gets 9-1 Victory for Chicago

Greg Maddux was much more impressed with the lecture Chicago Manager Don Zimmer delivered after a loss the day before than Zimmer was.

After pitching a six-hitter in Chicago Thursday to give the Cubs a 9-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies and increase the Cubs’ lead in the National League East to four games, Maddux credited Zimmer’s speech.

“He made us more aware of what we should be doing to get the batters out; that really was what the meeting was about,” Maddux said. “It worked, what he said. We won!”

But Zimmer shrugged it off, saying: “I’ve been saying the same thing all year.”

The Cubs were helped, too, by Andre Dawson, who broke out of an 11-for-58 slump with a three-game homer.

Chicago’s magic number for clinching the East dropped to six when St. Louis lost to the New York Mets Thursday night.

Maddux (18-12) equaled his victory total of last season. The right-hander, pounded for seven runs and 12 hits in 4 1/3 innings against the Phillies Sept. 6, struck out six and walked two in his seventh complete game.

Chicago went ahead in the second inning on Rick Wrona’s run-scoring single off Terry Mulholland. The Cubs made it 6-0 in the fourth on RBI singles by Ryne Sandberg and Mark Grace followed by Dawson’s 19th homer.

Doug Dascenzo, Sandberg and Grace hit consecutive RBI singles in the fifth off Randy O’Neal.