CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Sammy Sosa went another day without a home run, but the Chicago Cubs received enough gifts from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays .

After scoring just 19 runs in the first eight games of the homestand, the Cubs took advantage of three errors in a seven-run third inning and rolled to an 8-1 victory over the Devil Rays in the rubber game of their interleague series.

Sosa made this series a memorable one when he was ejected from Tuesday's opener for using a corked bat. The Dominican slugger hasn't homered since May 1 and is 4-for-24 since coming off the disabled list after going 1-for-4 in this game.

But the hit - a single in the first inning - drove in Chicago's first run before the Cubs broke open the game with seven runs in the third, five of which were unearned due to three errors by the Devil Rays . Two of the errors were committed by third baseman Jason Smith , a former Cub recalled from the minors when Damion Easley was released on Wednesday.

Corey Patterson had a two-run triple and Alex Gonzalez and Ramon Martinez each had RBI doubles in the third for the Cubs, who improved to 4-5 on a 12-game homestand that concludes against the New York Yankees .

"That was a big win for us, especially after we didn't win the last two series," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said. "We pride ourselves on winning series and the guys came out today and responded well."

Matt Clement (3-6), who had lost five straight decisions, pitched seven innings and allowed one run and seven hits to earn his first win since April 18.

"It's been rough going for me of late so to get those runs meant so much," Clement said. "The guys played great behind me and to get three double plays was big."

Devil Rays rookie Dewon Brazelton (1-5) lasted 2 1/3 innings and yielded eight runs, although just three were earned, and eight hits.

"I thought I had good stuff but things didn't go the way I wanted it to," Brazelton said. "This isn't an outing I will dwell on. I'll just pick up the pieces and move on."

Sosa would like to pick up the pieces and move on as well, but he is still awaiting workd on his punishment for using a corked bat. An announcement could come as early as Friday.

Sosa, who is 17th on the all-time home run list with 505, claimed he only uses the corked bat for batting practice but mistakenly used it in the game. Seventy-six of his bats were taken by major league baseball officials for testing and were found to have no foreign substance.

Sosa singled up the middle in the first inning to score Patterson, who had doubled.

The third inning uprising started with an error. Clement hit a grounder to Smith, who made a low throw to first that could not be handled by first baseman Aubrey Huff . After Lenny Harris singled for his 1,000th career hit, Gonzalez hit an RBI double and Patterson followed with a two-run triple.

"Hitting ahead of Sammy, pitchers are less likely to give me a walk," said Patterson, who is batting .321. "I'm just being more aggressive in the zone and getting pitches to hit."

Patterson scored when Smith, acquired by Tampa Bay from the Cubs in the deal which sent Fred McGriff to Chicago, fielded a grounder by Sosa and threw the ball over the head of Huff for his second error of the inning, giving the Cubs a 5-0 lead.

"You can't give big league teams extra outs," Huff said. "They took a big lead in that inning and we made no effort to come back."

One out later, Hee Seop Choi singled Sosa to third and Martinez followed with an RBI double. Choi also scored when Jason Tyner booted the ball in the left field corner for the third error of the inning.

"We've had a problem here that when we make a mistake things escalate," Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella said. "Obviously, three errors in an inning is like giving a game away."

Clement, who reached on an error to start the inning, capped it with an RBI single off reliever Steve Parris .

Huff had an RBI double in the sixth inning to account for Tampa Bay's only run.