Paul Maholm pitched well enough to win. He just didn’t go deep enough into the game to lock it down.Maholm was OK with it, though. He still has plenty of confidence in relievers Evan Meek and Chris Resop. The Cubs trailed by three before scoring five time in the bottom of the eighth to pull out the 5-3 victory Saturday at Wrigley Field.They broke through as Meek (0-1) walked pinch-hitter Kosuke Fukudome and threw a wild pitch before Starlin Castro hit an RBI double to make it 3-1. Lyle Overbay then misplayed Marlon Byrd’s grounder for an error as Castro scored to make it 3-2. Alfonso Soriano tied it with an RBI single and then Blake DeWitt hit a go-ahead two-run double off Resop.Meek said a mix of poor pitch selection and a lack of command contributed to the meltdown. Of the five runs he was charged with, three were unearned.Pirates manager Clint Hurdle saw the loss as a learning experience for his young club, adding now the important thing is to win the series. Pittsburgh captured the season opener 6-3 Friday.Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano left in the seventh with cramping in his right hand, one batter after he’d given up a leadoff homer to Garrett Jones that gave the Pirates a 3-0 lead.Sean Marshall (1-0) got the victory with a scoreless eighth and Carlos Marmol pitched the ninth for his first save.Zambrano walked two in the top of the first before Pedro Alvarez pulled a two-out RBI single to right to give the Pirates an early 1-0 lead.Neil Walker, who’d hit a grand slam in Pittsburgh’s win Friday, had an RBI double in the third after Jose Tabata reached on an infield single. After Andrew McCutchen walked to put runners at first and second with no outs, Zambrano averted a big inning. He struck out Overbay and then raced to cover first and complete a double play that was started by first baseman Carlos Pena on Alvarez’s broken-bat grounder.And Maholm kept the Cubs off balance. He retired the first eight batters.

NOTES—It was five degrees warmer than Friday, and was accompanied by a 12-mph wind blowing left to right. The crowd was much smaller, announced at 35,782 compared to 41,358 a day earlier…..Matt Garza, who will make his Cubs debut Sunday, spent most of Saturday leading cheers on the dugout steps while wearing sunglasses and a sweat shirt…..Jones had a quick start last season when he hit two homers in the opener against the Dodgers. He had four homers against the Cubs last season when Pittsburgh won 10 of 15 games.