With Piniella suspended, Cubs punch out Braves

The Chicago Cubs came out swinging, and not at each other.

Instead, they left Wrigley Field with smiles rather than bruises after a rare win.

Mark DeRosa hit a grand slam, Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee added solo homers, and the Cubs closed out a tumultuous weekend by beating the visiting Atlanta Braves yesterday, 10-1, to snap a six-game losing streak.

The win came after manager Lou Piniella was suspended indefinitely for his dirt-kicking tirade against umpire Mark Wegner on Saturday. It also capped a series that began with pitcher Carlos Zambrano and catcher Michael Barrett fighting in the dugout and clubhouse on Friday.

"Obviously, you don't see a fight everyday in the dugout, so there were questions with the attention that brings," Lee said. "The [Piniella] ejection? We knew that was coming sooner or later, so it wasn't too big of a deal. Our main concern was just the way we've been playing."

"I wasn't expecting anything until the early part of the week," Piniella said.

The Cubs are 23-31 after the win, certainly not what was anticipated after the hiring of Piniella and committing about $300 million toward a roster makeover.

"It all starts with playing bad baseball," general manager Jim Hendry said. "When you play as poorly as we have now for a few weeks, a lot of frustration sets in because you have a lot of guys that expected to win. Nobody's anything but extremely disappointed, frustrated with where we're at."

Sean Marshall allowed one run and six hits in 6 2/3 innings in his third start, walked one batter and struck out eight.

DeRosa gave Chicago a 4-0 lead in the first with the second grand slam of his career. Soriano homered in the second inning and Lee hit one in the third.

"That's the frustration that I guess we took out in today's game," Marshall said.

In other games:

* At New York, Doug Davis (4-6) allowed one run and six hits in 7 2/3 innings and Arizona won for the ninth time in 10 games and completed a 5-1 road trip, beating the Mets, 4-1. Jose Valverde picked up his 20th save in 22 chances.

* At Milwaukee, Ben Sheets (6-3) pitched six shutout innings, striking out seven and walking one, and the Brewers won their first series in nearly a month with a 3-0 victory over Florida.

* At Pittsburgh, Andre Ethier's two-run homer in the eighth inning off Salomon Torres (0-2) finished Los Angeles' five-run comeback, and the Dodgers topped the Pirates, 5-4. Dodgers closer Takashi Saito, going for his 17th save in 17 opportunities, left the game with one out in the ninth with what was described as a tight left hamstring.

* At Washington, Josh Bard homered and drove in four runs, David Wells (3-3) threw five solid innings in the rain and San Diego beat the Nationals, 7-3.

* At Houston, So Taguchi and Albert Pujols hit 10th-inning homers, lifting St. Louis to an 8-6 win over the Astros. Pujols also homered in the eighth and David Eckstein hit his sixth career leadoff home run for the Cardinals. The Astros have lost 14 of their last 17 games.

* At Denver, Garrett Atkins homered and singled in the winning run in the 10th inning to help Colorado rally from a six-run deficit to knock off Cincinnati, 10-9.

* The Cardinals acquired catcher Kelly Stinnett, who was playing at Triple A Las Vegas, from the Dodgers for cash. Stinnett, 37, played seven games for the Philllies in 2003. *

* The Cardinals acquired catcher Kelly Stinnett, who was playing at Triple A Las Vegas, from the Dodgers for cash. Stinnett, 37, played seven games for the Philllies in 2003. *