Haunting night of what-ifs
Cubs let three-run lead get away as Scott's triple in 11th drives in winner off Dempster
HOUSTON -- Ryan Dempster threw the pitch that Houston's Luke Scott hit into the right field gap in the 11th inning to beat the Cubs 5-4 Tuesday night. But this game never should have gotten to that point.
In fact, for the same reasons, this Cubs season should never have gotten to this point -- trailing Milwaukee by a game in the National League Central with 18 to play and defying logic with a once-heralded, veteran lineup that falls so short so often it's doubtful it can rise in time to be a force in this division race.
In fact, for the same reasons, this Cubs season should never have gotten to this point -- trailing Milwaukee by a game in the National League Central with 18 to play and defying logic with a once-heralded, veteran lineup that falls so short so often it's doubtful it can rise in time to be a force in this division race.
''I don't have a reason for it,'' former MVP candidate Derrek Lee said after what might have been the toughest loss yet for a team starting to pile them up. ''We need to do a better job of trying to get some runs in.''
(AP)
(AP file)
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Cubs vs. Astros
''I don't have a reason for it,'' former MVP candidate Derrek Lee said after what might have been the toughest loss yet for a team starting to pile them up. ''We need to do a better job of trying to get some runs in.''
Especially when one of the worst pitching staffs in the majors hands you 11 free bases on 10 walks and a hit batter while Milwaukee is finishing off the Pirates in Pittsburgh.
But instead of the Cubs routing Houston in nine innings, six scoring chances from the fourth through the 11th come up empty, and manager Lou Piniella spent his top bullpen arms -- Carlos Marmol, Bob Howry and Dempster -- to try to win a game the hitters made impossible to win.
From the end of the sixth inning through the first batter of the 11th, those three retired 15 straight Houston batters.
On the other hand, the Cubs left 15 men on base, including the bases loaded twice. They went 1 for 11 with men in scoring position. Their leadoff hitter reached base six times but scored just once.
Of course, that's going to happen sometimes. But how is it possible for a lineup with Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Cliff Floyd and other veterans with long, productive track records to gather these games like kids on an egg hunt?
In fact, five-and-a-half months into the season, it's starting to take on the same kind of smell.
''It seems like they're not going where we want them to go right now,'' shortstop Ryan Theriot -- who was robbed of a two-run extra-base hit in the eighth inning by a diving Carlos Lee.
The up-and-down nature of this confounding lineup has haunted the Cubs all season -- from their bewildering lack of power to their inability to compensate for that with more consistent small-ball fundamentals.
At-bats like Soriano's first-pitch popup with two men on and one out in the eighth will be the images that haunt this team all winter if it falls short of the playoffs to a Milwaukee team that has generously provided the Cubs a division race this September.
''This one was a tough one to swallow,'' Lee said in a grim, quiet clubhouse Tuesday night.
A lot like a month ago when the Cubs scored five runs in three games and got swept in Houston. Like this past weekend in Pittsburgh when they scored once in a series-opening loss wound up losing the series. Like the 13 times they've scored three or fewer runs and lost during a 16-22 stretch that started Aug. 2.
Piniella was asked whether the hitters' approaches were the problem.
''I don't know about the approaches -- I'm talking about the results,'' he said. ''The hell with the approaches. It's too late to worry about the approaches. Worry about the results.''
ASTROS 5, CUBS 4