Cubs go quietly in loss to Reds
Whenever the Cubs have an off-night on offense, manager Lou Piniella takes a night off from expounding on things after the game.
Reporters had to pull words out of Piniella Wednesday night after a 2-1 loss to Bronson Arroyo and the Cincinnati Reds on another pitcher's night at Wrigley Field.
"We had opportunities and never got a big hit," said Piniella during a postgame news conference that lasted just over a minute.
On the second straight night with the wind blowing in, the Cubs needed to do a lot of little things right, much as they did in Tuesday's 5-0 victory over the Reds.
It didn't happen Wednesday, and you didn't have to read too much between the lines to see where Piniella was directing his tight-lipped anger.
The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on singles by Aramis Ramirez and Mark DeRosa, with those hits composing two-thirds of the team's hit total for the game.
But what happened in the fourth galled Piniella.
Jim Edmonds led off with a walk, and DeRosa singled. But Kosuke Fukudome lifted a weak flyball to shallow center, and Edmonds had to hold. Geovany Soto then grounded into a double play, and that was that.
"First and third with no outs, put the ball in play on the ground somewhere, and you get a run," Piniella said, referring to the at-bat by Fukudome, who batted seventh in the order and who may be headed for a seat on the bench.
The poor offensive showing wrecked a quality start by Ted Lilly (12-7), who gave up only 2 hits and 2 runs in 7 innings. Lilly has been a tough-luck pitcher in the middle part of the season, pitching well enough to win but coming up with a loss or a no-decision in 5 good starts since the beginning of July.
Lilly was having none of it.
"There have been a few games this year where we've matched up with a guy who was on his game, and I was throwing the ball well," he said.
"You get into those kind of competitions, and you want to win. You want to win those games 1-0. I was sitting on the bench last night watching Rich (Harden) and talking to (Ryan) Dempster about how much fun it is to win those 1-0 games."
The Reds scored once in the sixth, with a wild-pitch, dropped-third-strike costing Lilly after Reds catcher Ryan Hanigan led off with a double.
A forceout allowed Hanigan to score. In the seventh, some questionable defense hurt Lilly.
Edwin Encarnacion led off and lifted a high flyball toward the Cubs bullpen in left. Shortstop Ryan Theriot chased after it while left fielder Alfonso Soriano loped in. The ball parachuted safely to the ground for a double.
"I don't think I had good position to the ball because I saw the count like 2-1, 3-1, and I went back a little bit, a couple steps back because I thought he was going to hit a deep flyball," Soriano said. "He hit it off the end (of the bat), and I didn't have a very good jump off the ball."
"I don't know; I haven't looked at the film," Piniella said, not elaborating.
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=229194">Plenty of scrutiny on this loss <span class="date"> [8/21/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=229195">Soto proving Cubs right<span class="date"> [8/21/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>