Cubs follow road recipe in 5-3 loss to Tigers

The Cubs have this recipe for road failure down to a T.

Start with decent enough starting pitching to keep them in the game.

Add plenty of baserunners to set up more than enough good scoring chances.

Mix in some sloppy baserunning, hardly any clutch hitting and a dash of shaky bullpen and ... tada!

Another road loss.

All the ingredients were there Wednesday in the Cubs' 5-3 loss to the Tigers, their third straight road loss on the current trip, dropping their overall mark away from Wrigley Field to 13-21.

In the immortal words of Aerosmith, it's the same old song and dance.

And Cubs skipper Lou Piniella is getting real tired of it and sounded ready to try anything afterward.

"Maybe we'll draw the names out of a hat," Piniella told reporters. "Leave a couple of guys doing the job in their positions and draw some names and see where they fall. We can't do any worse."

The Cubs (34-34) were 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 runners Wednesday, a day after leaving a dozen runners on base.

In fact, they've only scored 7 runs in their last three games, leaving 31 runners on base in the process

"We're getting hits, but we've got to start driving guys in," said catcher Geovany Soto, who had a solo homer, a double, a baserunning blunder and a key error. "We're all trying to make something happen, and it just isn't."

Rich Harden (4-4) took the loss, giving up 4 runs (2 earned) and 4 hits in 51/3 innings.

"It was an ugly game and I was unhappy with my performance," Harden said. "That's all I have to say."

The Cubs finish their three-game swing through Detroit with a matinee affair today, and Tigers manager Jim Leyland, for one, will be glad to see them leave.

"Thank God we're going to get them out of here before their bats get going, because they will," Leyland said. "We let them have way too many opportunities tonight."

• The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Mike Spellman's game tracker

Nice D: Micah Hoffpauir, manning first base while Derrek Lee DH'd for the night, flashed the leather in the third inning to rob Don Kelly of a hit down the line.

Extendo man: Lee, meanwhile, extended his hitting streak to 21 with a single in the seventh. It's the longest streak for a Cubs player since Jerome Walton went 30 straight in 1989. Now if Lee could just focus on tagging up from second ...

A step back: Outfielder Reed Johnson (back) was placed on the 15-day disabled list and Ryan Freel was called up from Triple-A Iowa.

Sixth (non)sense: Though he had a home run earlier in the game, Geovany Soto's sixth inning was one to forget. In the top half he struck out looking with the bases loaded and no outs. In the bottom half he dropped a popup near the Detroit dugout to get a Tigers rally rolling.