Just like the old days
Bullpen gives up lead, but there's plenty of blame to go around
CINCINNATI -- You can take the Cubs out of Chicago. You can even take the Cubs out of the old era.
But you can't take the Cubs out of the Cubs.
But you can't take the Cubs out of the Cubs.
At least not through the first three-game series of the new-dawn season of Lou Piniella, $300 million winters and ownership changes.
(AP)
At least not through the first three-game series of the new-dawn season of Lou Piniella, $300 million winters and ownership changes.
''What do I come away with? It's the start of the season, and I'm learning about this team,'' Piniella said Thursday after watching the Cubs squander a seventh-inning lead with baserunning gaffes, a bullpen breakdown and a passed ball in a 5-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.
Three relievers combined for three walks and four hits in the seventh and eighth, turning a 2-1 lead into a three-run loss and wasting a strong six-inning Cubs debut by starting pitcher Jason Marquis.
It left the Cubs stinging from an opening-series loss that included just seven runs of offense and 13 walks by the pitching staff. In fact, the Reds scored almost as many runs in the series on Cubs gifts: two players who walked and one hit batter came around to score, another run scored on a bases-loaded walk and a fifth scored on Michael Barrett's passed ball Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Cubs went 3-for-22 (.136) with runners in scoring position, including 0-for-12 in the two losses.
''We had opportunities in this series to score a lot more than eight,'' said Piniella, giving his club credit for an extra run. ''We've got to do a better job of hitting with men on base, got to cut down on the walks. Baserunning mistakes hurt us today.''
It doesn't figure to get easier this weekend in Milwaukee, where the Brewers (2-1) are averaging five runs and will start their top pitchers, Ben Sheets and Chris Capuano, in the series.
''It's three games. We lost two. I didn't get my job done,'' said reliever Will Ohman, who faced just one batter, Adam Dunn, but threw a wild pitch that put the go-ahead run on third, then walked Dunn on a ball that got past Barrett to allow the runner to score.
''I'll take my lumps,'' said Ohman, who also took the blame for the passed ball. ''The fact of the matter is we're better than that. We'll continue to be better than that. And we'll win more than we lose.''
The bullpen pitched well in the other two games, and the hitters started to come alive against Reds starter Kyle Lohse on Thursday. Four of the Cubs' 10 hits went for extra bases, including Mark DeRosa's one-out home run in the second and Aramis Ramirez's RBI double in the fifth.
But none came with men in scoring position, and the series ended with the kind of basepath comedy and bullpen tragedy that made the start of this new era look a lot like the old one.
With a chance to break open a 2-1 game in the seventh, Alfonso Soriano singled and got picked off first. Then Matt Murton singled and was replaced by Ryan Theriot, who was told to steal second. He did. But he also broke for third just as Derrek Lee grounded to third baseman Edwin Encarnacion, who had an easy tag.
''All in all, it's the start of a baseball season,'' Piniella said, ''and we'll get these things corrected and go forward. What can I say?''