MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com-Solid hitting helped the Albuquerque Isotopes to an 8-3 win over the Iowa Cubs Saturday night at Principal Park.

Albuquerque got on the board first in the third inning when Blake DeWitt doubled and scored on Mitch Jones' single.  Iowa tied the game at one in the bottom half of the inning.  Darwin Barney singled and advanced to third on a balk by Albuquerque's Tim Corcoran.  So Taguchi hit a line drive to right field to score Barney for the 1-1 tie.

The Isotopes reclaimed a 2-1 lead in the fourth inning and broke the game open with a five-run sixth.  Dee Brown walked to start the sixth-inning rally and the next batter, Chin-Lung Hu, doubled.  Tony Abreu hit a two RBI single before Luis Maza brought in another run with a sacrifice fly.  Abreu scored when DeWitt tripled for a 7-1 Albuquerque lead.  Three Isotope hitters collected two hits while Hu tallied three.  Iowa was out-hit 12-5 tonight.
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The Cubs attempted an eighth-inning rally, but fell short.  Barney doubled to drive in Nate Spears and Doug Deeds hit a sacrifice fly to trim Albuquerque's lead, 8-3.  Barney was 2-for-3 and scored twice Saturday night.

Iowa's Ezequial Astacio (0-1) allowed two runs on six hits in four innings pitched to take the loss.  Corcoran (2-0) threw seven innings, allowing three hits and one run to earn the win for Albuquerque.

With the Memphis Redbirds' 7-2 win over the Oklahoma CIty RedHawks tonight, Iowa was eliminated from making the playoffs for the 2009 season.

The Cubs and Isotopes play the third game of the four-game series Sunday.  First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.

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