2 out of 3 ain't bad for the Cubs -- but that 3rd game was awful

Not even some good feelings generated by Blackhawks Day at Wrigley Field could help noted hockey fan Ryan Dempster Sunday.

In hockey parlance, it was a "softy" that did in Dempster on the way to an 18-5 drubbing at the hands of the New York Mets. The day got so bad that Wrigley Field fans did the wave, a longtime no-no in Chicago.

Dempster was one out away from getting out of the fifth inning with a tie game when Ruben Tejada dunked a 2-run single into center field. The Mets got 1 more run that inning, their first of three 5-run innings.

Dempster didn't finish the inning for his second early exit in his last 2 starts. And it came on a day when his Blackhawks buddies, Duncan Keith and Dave Bolland, sang during the seventh-inning stretch.

"I know," Dempster said. "I was trying. Unfortunately it's not good enough. You've got to get the job done."

Dempster fell to 12-10 with a 3.76 ERA. In his previous start, he worked only 3 innings, but he said he's feeling fine.

"Lack of execution last couple games," he said. "Maybe picking a little bit too much on the corners instead of going after guys. My arm feels good. Velocity is good. I'm just not putting guys away when I get ahead of them."

There was a whole lot of ugly in this game for the Cubs, who won the series 2-1. Rookie relievers Marcos Mateo, James Russell and Thomas Diamond gave up a combined 11 runs.

Even star rookie Starlin Castro made a mental mistake, apparently forgetting how many outs there were in the seventh after reaching on a fielder's choice for the second out. He wandered off the base and started heading toward the dugout, and the Mets picked him off.

"Tough day," said manager Mike Quade. "Win a series and feel lousy. Demps had a tough day, obviously. Still, he's an out way from keeping us in the thing. One of those days, and then it got away from us and got sloppy after that. - The mistakes of youth showing up again. I've said before, it's not a straight line. There are going to be relapses. There's going to be trouble. The kids have done a good job, but you're going to have days like this."

On Castro's gaffe, Quade was coming out to argue the force play at second base and said he didn't see exactly what happened.

"Unusual situation, but you need to know how many outs there are," he said.

The Cubs fell to 59-78 for the season. Quade is 8-4 as Cubs manager since taking over for Lou Piniella, who resigned two weeks ago.

Quade said he is not thinking about his own record as he tries to make a case for keeping the job beyond this year.

"You take the opportunity, and you're so happy to have it," he said before the game. "I don't come in here with visions of grandeur. I just wanted to explain to these guys who I am and what I'm about in this chair, not as a coach anymore. I asked them to finish up and play hard for us the last five weeks.

"They've come to play, and they're playing. We're still trying to clean up mistakes, and we'll be doing that the rest of the year and into the years to come. But the effort is what I'm looking for, and they seem to be having fun doing that."