Giles' two RBIs carry Padres to 3-1 win over Cubs
After trying just about everything else during his team's horrific hitting slump, Cubs manager Lou Piniella talked of having a fun Saturday night in San Diego.
"Right now, we're being shut down," Piniella said on his pregame radio show. "Guys have to relax and go out there and have fun."
But things are never any fun when you're not scoring runs, and the Cubs continued in their offensive funk during a 3-1 loss to the Padres. It was the sixth straight loss for the Cubs. In the first five games of this road trip, they've scored 0, 1, 1, 0 and 1 runs, respectively.
The Cubs looked like they took Piniella's words to heart as the donned their rally caps early in the game. The inside-out look may or may not have helped in the second inning when Derrek Lee led off with his fifth home run of the season, a drive to deep left-center field in spacious Petco Park.
That staked Randy Wells to a 1-0 lead, and the rookie right-hander picked up where he left off to begin the season. Wells hadn't allowed a run in his first 11 innings pitched this year, and he worked through the first 3 innings facing nine batters.
Trouble came in the fourth, when the Padres scored twice. Wells hit Edgar Gonzalez with a 3-2 pitch with one out. After the dangerous Adrian Gonzalez flied out, Scott Hairston kept things alive with a single to center, sending Gonzalez to third.
Brian Giles followed with a double down the line in left, driving in both baserunners.
The Padres scored once against Wells after he got two outs on 2 pitches in the seventh. Nick Hundley hit an infield single and went to second on Wells' balk. Chris Burke singled up the middle to score Hundley and make the balk hurt.
After Lee's early homer, the Cubs offense went quiet against Padres starter Josh Geer.
"You have to get the batting averages up," Piniella said on his show. "When your on-base percentage should be your batting average, it makes it awfully tough."
After resting several of his regulars Friday, Piniella them back in Saturday, but he gave Alfonso Soriano the night off. Ryan Theriot, who was 2-for-16 on the trip, led off and went 0-for-4. No. 2 hitter Kosuke Fukudome was 0-for-4 with 3 strikeouts.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker </p> <p class="News"><b>Oh Wells:</b> Cubs starting pitcher Randy Wells gave up the first runs of his career with 2 in the fourth. Wells had tossed 20 straight scoreless innings between last season with Toronto and the Cubs and this year with the Cubs. </p> <p class="News"><b>First lead:</b> When Derrek Lee led off the top of the second with a home run, it gave the Cubs their first lead of the road trip. </p> <p class="News"><b>Economizing:</b> Wells was able to last 7 innings because he kept his pitch count low until then. Wells threw 12, 11 and 11 pitches in his first 3 innings. In the fifth, Wells threw only 5 pitches. It was his second quality start in a row. </p>