Cubs pound the ball, but get pounded 11-5
This isn't the first time the Cubs and the phrase "defy all logic" fit into the same sentence.
The Cubs pounded out a season-high 17 hits in that Mile High batter's paradise known as Coors Field on Sunday, but they managed to finish on the losing end of an 11-5 pasting by the Colorado Rockies.
An easy way to explain such a result is a well-timed grand slam or something similar. Nope. There wasn't a single home run in this game. The Rockies had 4 doubles among their 14 hits. The Cubs recorded 5 doubles and a triple.
This loss was simply a matter of sloppy fielding, poor pitching and passive baserunning. The Cubs (58-51) dropped 2 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central race and are 4-5 on this 10-game road trip, which ends Monday night.
Starter Randy Wells (8-5) had won 8 of his last 9 starts, but he suffered his worst outing of the season, allowing 5 earned runs in 51/3 innings. Three Cubs errors led to 2 unearned runs.
"There's not a whole lot to say," Wells told reporters after the game. "They swung the bats well. I didn't pitch well. I guess just chalk this one up as a tough day, forget about it, and come back and start a new run."
The first inning set a proper tone for this game. The Cubs seemed ready to take a 1-0 lead until Jake Fox's gapper bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double. Milton Bradley, who was on first at the time, was sent back to third base and the inning ended quietly.
In the bottom of the first, Colorado's first two hitters reached on a walk and a nub infield single that rolled past a diving Wells.
Both those runners later scored and the Cubs helped give the Rockies a third run when Alfonso Soriano's throwing error allowed Todd Helton to take second base after an RBI single.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella was ejected in the second inning during an argument with second-base umpire Chris Guccione. Piniella felt Rockies second baseman Clint Barmes never touched the bag on an inning-ending double play. The ruling cost the Cubs a run.
"I don't know how you can miss it," Piniella said. "Look, obviously he was wrong, OK. We'll leave it at that. I don't know if (the game) turned on that or not, but assuming the call is made right, and we get another basehit, the ballgame is tied and you don't know what can happen."
In the third, the Cubs loaded the bases with one out and Kosuke Fukudome followed with a single. Only one runner scored.
The Cubs (58-51) pulled within 5-3 in the sixth when Jeff Baker tripled and scored on Koyie Hill's single. But the Rockies scored 3 runs in each of the next two innings off Wells and Jeff Stevens to put the game out of reach.
Seven different Cubs collected multiple hits in this game. Milton Bradley went 4-for-5 and is 7-for-11 in the series. Hill went 3-for-5, while Baker had a double and a triple.
Todd Helton and Carlos Gonzalez delivered 3 hits each for Colorado, and catcher Yorvit Torrealba had 3 RBI.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Mike McGraw's game tracker</p> <p class="News"><b>Waste of hits:</b> This was one of those classic "Cubbie occurrence" games. Despite outhitting Colorado 17-14 (including 6-4 in extra-base hits), the Cubs were pounded at Coors Field, dropping 2 games behind St. Louis in the NL Central.</p> <p class="News"><b>Wells doesn't end well:</b> Starter Randy Wells had won 8 of his last 9 starts, but he turned in the worst outing of his rookie season. Wells gave up 5 earned runs in 51/3 innings. Three Cubs errors didn't help his cause.</p> <p class="News"><b>Sweet Lou turns sour:</b> Lou Piniella was thrown out in the second inning for arguing that Rockies second baseman Clint Barmes never touched the bag while turning an inning-ending double play. Replays suggested he probably was right, but it hardly mattered.</p>