Bats quiet as Cubs fall in 9th

HOUSTON - It didn't take long for fed-up Lou to return.

After the Cubs fell 2-1 Friday night to the Houston Astros, Cubs manager Lou Piniella entertained the press corps for just over a minute before saying good night.

"It's hard to win with 1 run," said Piniella, whose team has lost two straight to fall to 57-39. "Look, we scored 2 prior to the break. We scored 1 today. I don't know if it's a combination of too much rest or too little. Whatever it was, we lost 2-1. Houston played a good ballgame. We'll come out here tomorrow and do the best we can. That's all."

Actually, there was more. Piniella's club managed just 4 hits off Houston starting pitcher Brian Moehler and none against Geoff Geary over his 2 innings.

Jim Edmonds gave the Cubs a 1-0 lead with a homer leading off the fifth. Cubs starting pitcher Ted Lilly worked 7 good innings, giving up a monster blast to left field by Carlos Lee in the seventh.

The game ended quickly in the ninth, with Miguel Tejada and Hunter Pence hitting back-to-back doubles off Bob Howry with no outs.

The pitching isn't what has Piniella concerned.

It's clear Piniella can't wait for leadoff man and power threat Alfonso Soriano to come off the disabled list. That's supposed to happen next Thursday.

"It's obvious we've been straining," Piniella said. "And we've got some people in the lineup not swinging the bats, to boot. That's makes it even a little more difficult. So let's just ride this thing out as far as we can and get this guy back in the lineup and see where we go from there."

One hitter Piniella seemed to be singling out was Kosuke Fukudome, who endured a 3-for-19 homestand before going 0-for-4 - all flyouts - Friday.

Before the game, Piniella pointed to Fukudome's patience at the plate being a virtue early on. But that patience seems to have disappeared. Fukudome, who informed the Japanese media he didn't wish to speak after the game, swung at the first pitch he saw from Moehler.

So far in July, Fukudome is 7-for-46 (. 152).

"It's tough," said shortstop Ryan Theriot, who doubled and walked. "The travel's not easy. For me in '06, that was one of the things, changing time zones like that, having to come in and answer a lot of what's going on, and you really don't know. I think he's a good enough player, and he's kind of proven himself in the past that he'll come out of it, and he'll come out of it strong. When he does, I think we'll see what we saw early in the year.

"I tell you what, it's not for lack of preparation and work, so that makes me feel confident he'll be back in full force."

Lilly seemed pleased with his own effort, if not the result.

"You had the feeling it was going to be a game where you really had to limit your mistakes," he said. "I think for the most part we did that. But unfortunately, I made one late to a good hitter."

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