Lilly, Cubs knocked silly in Philly
PHILADELPHIA -- The Cubs are having all sorts of trouble with lefties lately, both the other teams' and their own.
The Phillies' Cole Hamels handcuffed the Cubs on Saturday night, beating them 7-1 as the Phillies have won the first two games of this three-game series.
The Cubs' own lefty, Ted Lilly, officially has joined teammate Rich Hill on the list of players to be concerned about.
For the third straight start, Lilly failed to go 5 innings, as the Phillies hit him around for 7 hits and 5 runs over 4½. Included were home runs by Pedro Feliz and Ryan Howard.
Lilly is the Cubs' No. 2 starter, and if his struggles continue, the team is in a world of hurt.
He lasted 4¿ innings in his first start of the season and 3¿ in his second. What's striking about that is last year he came out of a game because of poor performance only once before reaching 5 innings.
"He really didn't have a good spring, and it's carried on forward to the early part of the season," said manager Lou Piniella, whose team fell to 6-5 and must win today to have a winning road trip. "I talked to Larry (pitching coach Rothschild) about it a few times. I don't think there's a definitive answer."
Lilly, 15-8 with a 3.83 ERA last year, now is 0-2 with a 9.95 ERA. In 12¿ innings, he has given up 19 hits.
"Every start so far, I can say the same thing," Lilly said. "One thing you can look at on tape that I've been able to see is location -- inconsistency of location on the pitches. Even if I happen to walk a guy in a certain situation or whatnot, that's not the most concerning thing.
"Really, I'm giving up a lot of hits. I'm leaving balls out over the middle of the plate. I think that's still the thing that I would put as the No. 1 issue I have going on right now."
The Phillies sent eight men to the plate in the second inning, but all the damage happened early. Pat Burrell walked leading off, and Feliz followed by driving a 1-0 pitch over the wall in left-center for a 2-0 lead.
The next two innings went smoothly, but Lilly couldn't make it out of the fifth after giving up a leadoff single to Shane Victorino and a one-out double to Chase Utley before uncorking a wild pitch and giving up a 2-run homer to Howard.
Cubs batters managed just 1 hit off Hamels, who is 3-1 against the Cubs. They picked up 2 hits against the Phillies' bullpen, with Alfonso Soriano driving in the only run with an eighth-inning single.
"He's got a very good changeup," Soriano said of Hamels. "We have to give a lot of credit to him because we have a very good lineup and we only got 1 hit against him."
Cubs fielders Aramis Ramirez and Ronny Cedeno committed errors, giving the Cubs 10 in 11 games.
"We didn't do much," Piniella said of the entire game. "We didn't do much hitting. We didn't do much pitching."
His immediate concern is to get both of his left-handed starters jump-started.
"Our production has been basically mostly right-handed," he said. "Lilly and Hill are both good left-handed pitchers. There's no reason to assume that they can't get on track. But obviously the quicker the better for us."
Phillies 7, Cubs 1
At the plate: Derrek Lee doubled in the fourth inning for the only hit off lefty Cole Hamels, who shut out the Cubs for 7 innings. The Phillies outhit the Cubs 11-3.
On the mound: Left-hander Ted Lilly suffered his third subpar start in as many attempts this month. He lasted just 41/3 innings, giving up 7 hits and 5 runs. Pedro Feliz and Ryan Howard homered off Lilly. Kevin Hart went 22/3 scoreless before Bob Howry gave up 2 runs in the eighth.
-- Bruce Miles