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Lou Piniella Declares Retirement, Citing Mother's Failing Health

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Braves Demolish Cubs In Lou Piniella's Final Game

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Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Jason Heyward and Omar Infante both finished with four hits, including two homers, scored four times and each drove in four runs as Atlanta dominated Chicago, 16-5, in the finale of a three-game set from Wrigley Field which was also the terminal contest in the storied managerial career of Lou Piniella.

Although the 66-year-old had announced last month that he would retire effective the end of the season, he abruptly moved up the date to Sunday. Mike Quade will take the reins for remainder of the season, beginning Monday in Washington.

"It's a good day to remember and it's also a good day to forget," said Piniella. "I cried a bit after the game, it was a very emotional day cause it will be the last time I put on a uniform. My experience in baseball has been very special."

Derrek Lee had three RBI and Alex Gonzalez knocked in a pair for the Braves, who took two of three in the series and have won six of eight overall.

"We were hitting the ball really good today," said Atlanta manager Bobby Cox. "We had some guys with great games out there today and whenever you have hitting like that you win more often than not."

Mike Minor (2-0) allowed seven hits and three runs over six innings for the win. The 22-year-old left-hander fanned a career-best 12 batters, after fanning 10 in his first two career starts.

Aramis Ramirez finished 3-for-4 with a two-run home run for the Cubs, losers in six of their last seven. Marlon Byrd added three hits and an RBI while Blake DeWitt and Xavier Nady also drove in a run each.

Randy Wells (5-12) was charged in defeat for seven hits and seven runs -- five earned -- with five strikeouts and four walks in six-plus frames.

Already ahead by two, the Braves broke the game wide open with a four-run seventh. Infante and Heyward singled, leaving Wells to exit and Diamond Thomas to enter the game before a fielding error on a Martin Prado grounder loaded the bases.

Lee flew out and James Russell got the nod, only to allow a run-scoring fielder's choice by Brian McCann. Melky Cabrera walked and Justin Berg was called on but surrendered a three-run hit from Gonzalez which made it 9-3.

Atlanta piled on in the eighth with five runs as Heyward scored one with a single, Lee slugged a bases-clearing double and Cabrera grounded into a fielder's choice for a 14-3 game.

Chicago cut its deficit to nine in the home half on a DeWitt pinch-hit RBI single and a fielder's choice grounder from Nady.

Heyward rocketed a two-run homer to right in the ninth for a 16-5 contest, then Cristhian Martinez turned in a scoreless bottom of the frame.

Each side picked up a run in the first as Infante launched his first homer of the game, then Byrd countered with an RBI single.

Heyward's one-out solo shot put the Braves ahead in the third, but Ramirez hit a two-run shot in the home half to give the Cubs a one-run edge.

Infante reached the bleachers again in the fourth with a three-run blast for a 5-3 Atlanta edge.

Infante's last multi-homer game came on September 17, 2003 with Detroit against the White Sox...Heyward recorded his first career multi-homer contest...Piniella exits the game with a record of 1835-1713 with the Yankees (1986-88), Reds (1990-92), Mariners (1993-2002), Rays (2003-05) and Cubs (2007-10)...He won a World Series with Cincinnati in 1990, and was a three- time manager of the year (1995 AL, 2001, 2008 NL)...Cubs leftfielder Alfonso Soriano's eighth-inning double was his 700th career extra-base hit...The Braves won four of six in the season series.

Original Story

Lou Piniella Will Retire After Today's Game, Reportedly Because Of Ill Mother

Lou Piniella, who announced that 2010 would be his last season as Cubs manager in July, is ending that season prematurely—today, in fact, after the rubber match in a Cubs-Braves series at Wrigley Field. ESPN's Amy K. Nelson tweets some details:

Cubs just announced in a press release that Lou Piniella will stop managing after TODAY's game. #wow

MLB.com Cubs beat writer Carrie Muskat is reporting that it's Piniella's mother's health that prompted the acceleration of the retirement timetable:

Lou Piniella had announced retirement July 20 but wanted to finish. His 90 year old mother's health is reason he's leaving now #cubs

Piniella had recently missed a road trip to be with his mother.

Muskat also tweets that the Cubs have tapped Mike Quade as their interim manager, and that Quade is a candidate to take over the team next year.

We will have more updates in this StoryStream as it develops.

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