Willis holds Cubs at bay in 4-2 loss to Marlins

MIAMI -- Easy? You thought this would be easy?

Very little has been easy for the Cubs this year, but when they took a 3-game lead into Tuesday, the math was all on their side.

Somebody forgot to tell Dontrelle Willis and the Florida Marlins. Willis pitched 8 innings of 2-hit ball Tuesday night, and the Marlins held on to beat the Cubs 4-2 before a decidedly pro-Cubs crowd of 16,044 at Dolphin Stadium.

With second-place Milwaukee beating the Cardinals, the Cubs' magic number for clinching the National League Central held at 4, and their lead over the Brewers shrank to 2 games.

As frustrating as the loss was for the Cubs (83-74) -- several batters complained about home-plate umpire Andy Fletcher, with Aramis Ramirez getting tossed in the ninth inning -- the feeling in the visitors' bathhouse was that this was only one game.

For the folks back home, however, every game is a big one.

"You know what, it should be," said second baseman Mark DeRosa, who had his own issues with Fletcher when he was called out on strikes leading off the ninth. "We realize what's at stake. We realize that Milwaukee is winning.

"We're in good position. That's all I know. We don't want to come here and lose ballgames, but you're not going to win every night."

The game began as a matchup between Cubs lefty Ted Lilly, who hadn't lost since Aug. 25, and lefty Willis, who had just 2 wins in his previous 21 starts.

"Through all the adversity, I still kept my head up," said Willis, the one-time Cubs farmhand. "This is the other side of the fence for me. We beat a very good pitcher tonight on a very good team."

Willis (10-15) made quick work of the free-swinging Cubs, retiring the first seven batters he faced.

The Marlins picked up 4 runs on 5 hits against Lilly in the second. They strung 4 straight one-out singles at the bottom of the order. The crusher then came on a 2-run, ground-rule double to right-center by No. 3 hitter Jeremy Hermida.

"My take on that is try and get out of that inning with only giving up 2 runs," said Lilly (15-8). "That's what's going to be tough. I'm going to be thinking about that for a few days, if I can just get out of that inning and make sure I make that pitch to Hermida, throw a good breaking ball there. Even if he happened to be sitting on it, make sure I get it down and throw a good one."

With the Cubs trailing 4-2, things got interesting in the ninth against Marlins reliever Lee Gardner. DeRosa led off and was called out on a pitch that might have been 6 inches outside. DeRosa let Fletcher know how he felt, but Fletcher didn't kick him out.

"That pitch is a ball, period," DeRosa said. "I'm the leadoff guy in the top of the ninth in a 4-2 game, I've got to find a way to get myself on. You don't like having the bat taken out of your hands in that situation. I don't know what else to say. I came in and watched it on video. I think that pitch was outside."

Derrek Lee singled. Ramirez followed with a flyout, and on his way back to the dugout, he was ejected, even as he had his back to Fletcher.

"You can blame the umpire, but I ain't going to talk about the umpire," said Ramirez, who expressed surprise at being tossed. "Yeah, because I didn't say that bad of things."

The Cubs to a man did give credit to Willis. And to a man, they left still feeling confident of their spot in the standings.

"Hey, listen, come out and play tomorrow," manager Lou Piniella said. "That's why we had a 3-game lead when we came. Now we squandered a piece of it. Come back and play tomorrow."

Marlins 4, Cubs 2

At the plate: Craig Monroe hit his first homer as a Cub, a 2-run shot in the eighth against Dontrelle Willis. Until then, the Cubs had just 1 hit, a third-inning single by Ryan Theriot. Monroe's homer was the Cubs' 39th in September, setting a club record for the month. The Marlins outhit the Cubs 9-3.

On the mound: Lefty Ted Lilly lasted just 5 innings. He gave up 8 hits and 4 runs, all in the second inning. Michael Wuertz and Kevin Hart pitched scoreless ball the rest of the way as the big men in the bullpen got another day of rest.

-- Bruce Miles