Offense disappears in Cubs loss
PHOENIX — The Cubs are at it again.
For the fifth time in five games on this road trip, they failed to hit a home run. Lately, they've been able to win without the longball, but they couldn't get much going in any department Saturday night in a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
It's hard to picture the Cubs as anything but a longball hitting team, with their home park being Wrigley Field, but that's the way it has been this year, and it led manager Lou Piniella to this admission before the game:
"We're 14th in the league in home runs, so we're not really a home run hitting team," Piniella said. "I think we expect to win here with good pitching, good defense and timely hitting."
The Cubs got two of the three Saturday, but they fell to a familiar foe in Doug Davis. Dating to his days with the Milwaukee Brewers, Davis ran his lifetime record against the Cubs to 7-5.
The only run the Cubs managed came in the sixth, when Aramis Ramirez scored Ryan Theriot with a single.
"We had a couple chances, and that was it, outside of Ramirez's RBI single," said Piniella, whose team fell to 66-62 but remained 1ˆ¨ games ahead of the Brewers, who lost for a second straight night at San Francisco.
The hard-luck loser for the Cubs was lefty Ted Lilly, who gave up 2 runs, both coming on a two-out, 2-run homer to Conor Jackson in the fourth.
"I made some mistakes, and that was one I didn't get away with," said Lilly, whose record dropped to 13-7. "It's unfortunate. I kind of felt I had an opportunity to keep up with Davis. He was throwing the ball well, and I wasn't able to do it. So I'm pretty disappointed."
Lilly was beating himself up for more than just his pitching. With the game scoreless in the third, Matt Murton led off with a double. After Jacque Jones moved Murton over with a grounder to the right side, Lilly attempted a squeeze bunt but couldn't get it down.
"It just so important, you start thinking about the little things, just like getting that squeeze down," Lilly said. "I had a great opportunity for me, a four-seam fastball. I stabbed at it and fouled it off. It wasn't like it was a real tough pitch to bunt. But when you do things like that, you don't really deserve good results."
Lilly was perfect over the first 2 innings and threw just 36 pitches over 3 before giving up the 2 runs in the fourth. He wound up working 6 innings, giving up 4 hits.
Piniella lifted Lilly for pinch hitter Cliff Floyd with Murton on second and two outs in the seventh and the Cubs down 2-1, but Floyd popped out.
Kerry Wood relieved Lilly in the bottom of the inning. Wood got Jackson on a groundout before Chris Snyder hit a broken-bat single. After Jeff Cirillo grounded out, Justin Upton doubled home Snyder.
Piniella put little significance into Milwaukee losing.
"We don't care about what Milwaukee does or doesn't do," Piniella said. "We care about what we do. I said before the ballgame and I'll say it again: As long as we continue to play well, we don't have to worry about anything. And if we don't play well, it doesn't matter what anybody else does."
Diamondbacks 3, Cubs 1
At the plate: Matt Murton, making his first start since Aug. 20, doubled, singled and singled his first three times up. Aramis Ramirez had an RBI single in the sixth inning.
On the mound: Lefty Ted Lilly turned in a "quality start," working 6 innings and giving up 4 hits and 2 runs. He struck out eight without walking a batter. Of the 85 pitches Lilly threw, 61 were strikes. Kerry Wood gave up a run in the seventh before Scott Eyre retired the final batter of the inning. Michael Wuertz worked out of self-made trouble in the eighth.
— Bruce Miles