Offense stalls late for Cubs

MIAMI - The only late-night fireworks Saturday came with a postgame concert on the field by Jaci Velasquez.

As far as the Cubs went, their offense was a dud when the going got tough against the Florida Marlins.

Leaving eight runners stranded over the final four innings, the Cubs fell 2-1 and saw their road winning streak end at nine.

"Too many chances - early and late," said Cubs manager Lou Piniella, whose team fell to 75-48. "Never got a hit when we needed."

Piniella looked to have the best intentions in mind when he stacked his lineup with four left-handed hitters in the middle against Marlins pitcher Anibal Sanchez, who had yielded a .473 batting average against lefties.

Turns out that Mike Fontenot was the only left-handed batter to get 1 of the 3 hits against Sanchez in the 5 innings he worked.

Piniella rested first baseman Derrek Lee and had Jim Edmonds batting third.

"We rested some people," Piniella said. "And I've got some people hurt. We can't play everybody here in this hot weather in August, especially in places like Atlanta, where you play a doubleheader and then here.

"You better rotate your team. We don't want to be empty after Labor Day, so we've got to keep our team and fresh."

The Cubs sent lefty Sean Marshall to the mound for his first start since July 6, and he pitched creditably, going 5 innings and giving up 4 hits and both Florida runs.

Hanley Ramirez greeted Marshall in the first inning with his 27th home run of the year. Henry Blanco tied the game in the fourth with a two-out homer.

Marshall got into a two-out jam in the fifth. With a man on second, the Cubs decided to walk Ramirez intentionally. But Cody Ross foiled the strategy with an RBI single.

"It was good; I take a lot of positives from today's game," said Marshall, who dropped to 2-3. "I know I hadn't had a start in awhile. I felt like I still had command of most of my pitches. The leadoff home run put them on the board early. That's kind of a disappointment. But overall a lot of positives from my aspect."

The Cubs didn't want Ramirez to beat them in the fifth.

"He put some good at-bats against me, a leadoff home run and a double on a good curveball down," Marshall said. "He was seeing the ball pretty well off me. I figured I had a good chance of getting Ross out. I made a good pitch. It looked like he was looking for that pitch and just muscled it over the second baseman."

The Cubs had their best chance in the seventh, loading the bases with two outs. Lee came up as a pinch hitter and grounded into a forceout to end the inning.

The Cubs left two on in the eighth. Aramis Ramirez, who has been out with a sore hip, came up as a pinch hitter and grounded out. In the ninth, Fontenot struck out in the ninth with runners on first and second.

"We made some runs at it," Lee said. "I had a shot there and didn't get it done. We had some other shots. It just didn't work out."