Cubs offense finally comes alive in the ninth, but they fall short and lose 4-3 to the Giants

The Cubs offense was quiet until the ninth inning as they lost to the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park tonight.  Paul Maholm started for the Cubs and allowed four runs on eight hits and walked two batters and struck out four over 5.1 innings.  Maholm put the Cubs in a 4-0 hole in the third inning and was pulled with one out in 6th after throwing 89 pitches.

Cubs starter Paul Maholm had a rough outing tonight in San Francisco (photo from cubs.com)

Right handed reliever Blake Parker came into the game next and lasted until the seventh inning with two out and a runner on first.

Casey Coleman came into the game next and got the third out.  Carlos Marmol entered the game in the bottom of the eighth and did a good job.

The Cubs made it interesting in the ninth when Starlin Castro led off with a base hit, followed by Joe Mather's base hit.  Alfonso Soriano batted third in the inning and hit a 3-run home run to make it 4-3 Giants.

Bryan LaHair came through next with a double with one out, but Darwin Barney and David DeJesus were unable to reach.

Even though the Cubs finally kicked in their offense in the ninth and finally made tonight's game fun to watch, they fell one run short of tying it up and lost 4-3 to the Giants.

Tomorrow, the Cubs and Giants will wear 1912 replica uniforms as they play game two of the four game series at 6:15pm CT.  The Cubs were 91-59 that year and finished third in the division.  Matt Garza will start for the Cubs and try to earn his third win of the season.