Cubs, Marlins split crucial doubleheader

MIAMI -- The Chicago Cubs' 24-hour visit to Miami included a brief stay atop the NL wild-card race. Then they lost their lead because they couldn't beat David Weathers.\nThe journeyman right-hander, making his first start in six years, limited Chicago to two hits and one run in five innings, and the Florida Marlins won 5-2 for a split of their doubleheader Monday.\nMark Prior allowed just five hits in 7 2-3 innings and out-pitched Carl Pavano in the opener to help the Cubs win 5-1.\nWith the victory in Game 1, Chicago climbed one percentage point ahead of San Francisco in the wild-card race. But the Cubs ended the day where they started: one-half game behind the idle Giants.\nThe Marlins, who had hoped to gain ground with a sweep, instead remained 4 1/2 games behind San Francisco. The defending World Series champions have no games left against any of the four teams ahead of them.\nWeathers (7-7) showed the Marlins that anything's possible. Pitching for his third team this season, he came into the game 0-4 lifetime against the Cubs with an 11.44 ERA. But he received a standing ovation from fans behind the Florida dugout when he walked off the mound after the fifth with a 5-1 lead.\nRudy Seanez, Guillermo Mota and Armando Benitez completed the five-hitter. Benitez pitched the ninth for his 44th save, a career high and the most in the NL.\nFlorida right fielder Juan Encarnacion helped out his closer in the ninth with a leaping catch to rob Mark Grudzielanek of a two-run homer.\nDamion Easley had a three-run homer and an RBI double off Matt Clement (9-13). Michael Barrett hit his 16th home run for the Cubs.\nBoth teams would have preferred the day off as originally scheduled. For the Cubs, the split came during a stretch of four road games in three days in three cities. Miami was added to the itinerary to make up two games postponed Labor Day weekend because of Hurricane Frances.\nThe doubleheader was the third for the Marlins in 11 days, and the grind has depleted their pitching while all but dashing their hopes of returning to the playoffs.\nAnnounced attendance was 37,412, but it was a late-arriving crowd. Game 1 began in front of about 5,000 spectators, many of them blue-clad fans who did plenty of cheering as Chicago took a 4-1 lead with three runs in the second against Pavano (17-7).\nCorey Patterson's two-run double put the Cubs ahead to stay, and Prior (6-4) beat Florida for the second time in 10 days. He threw a season-high 129 pitches on an 84-degree afternoon.\n"I'm finally hitting my stride and pitching up to my capability," said Prior, who missed the first two months of the season with a sore right Achilles' tendon. "It was great weather to pitch in. It was fun to go out there and get it done."\nPrior gave up a run in the first but didn't allow a runner to reach third after that. He struck out nine and walked one.\n"A very impressive performance," manager Dusty Baker said. "That's what you like to see this time of year in the stretch run."\nRyan Dempster retired Mike Lowell with two on to end the eighth, and LaTroy Hawkins pitched the ninth to complete a seven-hitter.\nBaker held Sammy Sosa and two other regulars out of the lineup in the opener, but the Cubs still collected 16 hits. Pavano gave up five runs and 12 hits in six innings and lost his second start in a row.\n"I guess he's entitled to a couple of mediocre ones," manager Jack McKeon said.\nIn the second game, Easley homered in the first after Juan Pierre walked and Jeff Conine was hit by a pitch. Easley's homer caromed off the screen attached to the left-field foul pole.\nFlorida made it 5-1 in the third on RBI doubles from Miguel Cabrera and Easley, ending Clement's afternoon after just 2 1-3 innings. The right-hander is 2-9 over his past 17 starts.