Piniella hashes out details of a loss

PITTSBURGH -- Cubs manager Lou Piniella said he didn't meet with the media Saturday night because "I didn't feel like rehashing things last night. I had a stiff neck, and I was tired."

Piniella said he didn't want to rehash the 5-4, 14-inning loss Sunday morning, either, but after about 15 minutes of slinging hash with the writers, Piniella said he felt "like a short-order cook."

There was so much to rehash about that game to take care of two Sunday brunches.

The first topic of the day was why Piniella double-switched Gold Glove first baseman Derrek Lee out of a tie game in the bottom of Saturday's 12th inning. Piniella replaced lefty Scott Eyre with Michael Wuertz and Lee with backup catcher Henry Blanco.

As it turned out, Wuertz ended up batting anyway, in the 14th, and Blanco figured prominently in two botched plays. The only reliever left for the Cubs was Jose Ascanio, whom Piniella didn't want to bring in during the 12th.

"What am I going to do?" Piniella asked. "I've got one pitcher left. And I'm going to use two pitchers for two hitters? I can't do it. The most embarrassing thing that can happen in a major-league game is you run out of pitching and you bring in an infielder in a tie game. What do you do then?"

Piniella took a slow walk to the mound to remove Eyre and said his head was "spinning."

"If that game goes 16 or 17 innings, Ascanio's going to have to finish it," he said. "That was it. That's why I had to double-switch. Notice I dilly-dallied around the mound deciding what to do. My first inclination, truthfully, was to walk (Jason) Michaels and let Wuertz pitch to the pitcher. Eyre had gone 3-2 to the left-handed hitter, and I didn't want to put him in that situation.

"Once I took the pitcher out of the ballgame, I had no choice but to double-switch. It was either with Ramirez at third base or with Lee at first base. I thought Henry could probably handle first base a little better than third."

Wuertz got out of the 12th. In the top of the 13th, Cubs catcher Geovany Soto led off with a walk, and Kosuke Fukudome followed with another walk. That brought Blanco to the plate. The Pirates put the "wheel" play on, with the shortstop running to cover third.

Blanco bunted into a forceout, but Piniella said it was the wrong play.

"Well, Henry came up at the right time," Piniella said. "They wheeled on us. When people wheel on us, we're supposed to slash. We didn't slash. We bunted."

In the bottom of the 14th, Freddy Sanchez reached first base on shortstop Ryan Theriot's throwing error. Theriot's throw was low, and Blanco couldn't scoop it. The Pirates went on to win a few minutes later.

"It was a bad throw," Piniella said. "Then we wild-pitched a guy. If it's a good throw, I think you and I catch it. We don't have to worry about whether Lee's there or not.

"One of these days, you're going to see me take an outfielder out and put a pitcher out in the outfield for a hitter. That came to mind, too."

After all that rehashing, Piniella said it all came down to one thing.

"You know what?" he said. "When you win, you don't have to answer these questions. But when you lose, all these questions arise for whatever reason."