Late homer dooms Lilly, struggling Cubs

PITTSBURGH - Cubs manager Lou Piniella may have set a record for brevity in postgame news conferences after Tuesday night's heartbreaking 3-2 loss to the Pirates.

Ted Lilly, who pitched well all night, gave up Neil Walker's first major-league home run, a 2-run shot to left-center in the eighth inning, as the Pirates wiped out a 2-1 deficit.

Like so many other games this season, it was hard to pin this one on the pitchers, and Piniella is tired of talking about that.

"Look, I'm not going to talk about it anymore," said Piniella, whose team is 24-29 overall and 1-7 against Pittsburgh. "We just got beat, and come out and get them tomorrow and do the best we can. That's all we can do."

Once again, a nonproducing offense was the culprit. The Cubs managed 7 hits, 6 against Pirates starter Jeff Karstens, but they left eight on base and were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position.

The most egregious example came in the fifth inning. Xavier Nady, who hit a 2-run homer to put the Cubs ahead 2-0 in the third, led off the fifth with a double.

Rookie Tyler Colvin did the right thing by grounding out to first base and advancing Nady. But neither Alfonso Soriano nor Mike Fontenot could get the runner home. Soriano (1-for-4) popped out, and Fontenot (0-for-4) grounded out.

Soriano exhibited as much frustration in the clubhouse as he has in his time with the Cubs.

"We're not doing the job right now," he said. "We are not hitting well. We are not scoring some runs. We are not getting the hit when we need it.

"So I think we're not playing good right now. It's not frustration. It's very tough. You've got a situation like that to try to win some games, and we lost it. It's very frustrating."

Nady started at first place in place of Derrek Lee and wound up with 2 singles in addition to the double and the homer.

"It's frustrating on everyone," Nady said. "You come prepared, and you plan on getting big hits and getting things going, but offensively we're just not doing it. No way around it. Lilly pitched a heck of a game."

Lilly (1-5, 3.61 ERA) gave up a solo homer to Garrett Jones leading off the fifth. He took 89 pitches into the eighth when he walked Andrew McCutchen with one out. Piniella came out for a visit with closer Carlos Marmol readying in the bullpen.

"Make sure that he held that runner because he ran on him the time before," said Piniella, who downplayed bringing in Marmol. "With one out? We said we weren't going to do that early. One more out, we bring him in (to face Lastings) Milledge, but we didn't get to that."

Lilly put it all on himself, as Cubs pitchers have been doing all year.

"He asked me how I was going, and I told him I'll never want to come out of the game," he said. "I imagine none of our guys would.

"Second place (in the battle). That's not that good here. It's giving up fewer runs than their guy, winning the game. Winning the game. That's it. That's what it's about, as a team."

<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p> <p class="News">Pirates 3, Cubs 2</p> <p class="News"><b>Wasted quality:</b> Ted Lilly turned in the Cubs' 33rd quality start. The Cubs' are 18-15 in those games, and the starters have an ERA of 2.15. Lilly worked 72/3 innings, giving up 6 hits and 3 runs.</p> <p class="News"><b>Bad stat: </b>The Cubs are only 5-8 in games they've allowed the opposition 3 runs.</p> <p class="News"><b>Starlin in the field:</b> Rookie shortstop Starlin Castro ran far to the stands to catch Andrew McCutchen's first-inning popup. He made a nice backhanded play in the hole and added a strong throw to get Lastings Milledge in the sixth.</p> <p class="News"><b>The quote:</b> "We haven't done well. Let's not look at the other teams. Let's take a look at ourselves first and foremost. I don't see us on top of our division or with one of the better records in baseball. Maybe they're saying the same things about us: 'We're playing the Cubs. Let's make some hay.' "</p> <p class="News">- Manager Lou Piniella</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=385032">Frustrated Piniella makes drastic lineup changes<span class="date"> [6/1/10]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=385020">Rothschild sees good things for Zambrano<span class="date"> [6/1/10]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>