Oswalt stymies soft-hitting Cubs as Astros win 6th straight

Things you can do with 27 singles:

• Take them on a nice cruise to the Bahamas.

• Have a field day at the dollar store.

• Fill out 27 foursomes at your local golf course.

Things you can't do with 27 singles:

• Win.

The Cubs have certainly proven that true over the last three days with an offense that hasn't produced an extra-base hit since Alfonso Soriano's go-ahead home run in the seventh inning Friday against Philadelphia, a full 28 innings ago.

And they've paid a price for their lack of power - this time dropping a 3-0 decision to Roy Oswalt and the Houston Astros on Monday, marking the first time the Cubs have lost three games in a row at home since August 2007.

"We didn't do much today, I'll tell you that," said frustrated Cubs manager Lou Piniella.

"You don't try to figure out this game," said first baseman Derrek Lee, who was 0-for-4. "Just keep swinging,"

It didn't help that the Cubs were up against the red-hot Oswalt, 5-1 with a 1.59 ERA in his last 6 starts. He has won 7 of his last 8 decisions, and in 4 of those he allowed a total of zero runs.

Oswalt was at it again Monday, holding the Cubs to just 4 hits and doing it all with a torn fingernail on his pitching hand.

"He was working fast and throwing a lot of strikes - he threw a very good game," Soriano said.

"He's always good," Lee said. "We probably made him look a little better than he really was. We should've done a little bit better than that. But Oswalt is always good."

"The fastball was coming out of my hand real well - that was the biggest key," Oswalt said. "I wasn't getting behind anybody."

Oswalt's heroics overshadowed another solid outing for Jason Marquis, who struck out eight - his high since signing with the Cubs - and gave up 2 runs in 6 innings but still saw his three-game winning streak snapped.

"He pitched fine, he really did," Piniella said.

But with the way the Cubs have swung the bats of late it probably didn't matter who was on the mound.

"We need to find a way to gets the bats waked up again," Lee said. "This is baseball; we've gone through it a couple of times before. You just keep swinging and you come out of it."

The sooner the better, because it's not going to get any easier down the road.

"This guy (Oswalt) is a good pitcher, the Phillies threw some good pitching at us - these are the type of guys you're going to have to hit," Piniella said. "Today we didn't. We'll see what happens tomorrow."

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