Ward's double lifts Chicago

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CHICAGO - Three games, three come-from-behind wins. “I think this shows what this team is all about,” Reed Johnson said. The Cubs, again, proved their resiliency on Sunday afternoon, coming from behind to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-4, at Wrigley Field. Trailing by two in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Cubs rallied for two in the seventh and two more in the eighth. The victory capped off a three-game sweep of Arizona, the team that knocked the Cubs out of last year's National League playoffs. “I was real happy to see that in this series here, we were able to come from behind and win these games,” manager Lou Piniella said. The Cubs (22-15) trailed late in each of the three contests - 1-0 on Friday, 2-1 on Saturday and 4-2 on Sunday. “Good clutch hitting at the end of [Sunday's] game,” Piniella continued. “The big six-run seventh [on Saturday]. Our pitching, our defense. ... Everything clicked. “It was a good weekend of baseball for us.” Arizona (23-15) carried a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh, but Johnson's two-run homer - his first of the year - evened the game. It only was a prelude of things to come, however. In the bottom of the eighth, the Cubs were brilliant. Aramis Ramirez led off the frame with a single to left. He stole second. He advanced to third when Kosuke Fukudome reached on a perfect push bunt down the third-base line. Later, after Arizona intentionally walked pinch-hitter Alfonso Soriano to load the bases, pinch-hitter Daryle Ward drove the first pitch he saw into the gap. Ramirez and Fukudome raced home, giving the Cubs a two-run lead. “Well, I'm not going to let Soriano beat us right there,” Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. “That's really not that tough of a decision.” It was the second consecutive game Ward factored in - on Saturday, he evened the game with a run-scoring single. “This is his specialty,” Piniella said of Ward, who has 74 career pinch hits. “He's experienced. He's been up many times in these types of situations. “He enjoys hitting. It's what he enjoys. Whether he succeeds or not, he gives you a nice professional at-bat. And that's what you're looking for.” Johnson, mired in a 4-for-34 slump during the past 11 games, said of his ballclub's multiple contributers, “You see that a lot of with good teams.” “You see different guys producing at the plate every night, a different pitcher producing every night,” he said. “I think that in general you see that with quality teams.” Emergency starter Sean Gallagher - Carlos Zambrano was scratched because of the day's cold and rainy conditions - echoed his teammate's comments. “This team seems to always come through in the clutch,” Gallagher said. “Just look at [Sunday's] game! I come out of the game, a couple things happen ... then all of a sudden, two, three innings later we're right back in it.” The series sweep might not have erased the lingering feelings from last October's NLDS nightmare, but this weekend cemented the Cubs as a NL contender. Arizona came into Wrigley with the best record in baseball. “We knew we had our work cut out for us,” Johnson said. “The last week or so we really haven't been playing all that well, so I think this is a big confidence booster. “We took three games from a real quality team.”