As far as games go, Cubs do talk a good one
Waiter, reality check, please.
Before Saturday's Cubs-Yankees game at Wrigley Field, there was a lot of talk in the Cubs' dugout about how loose the team was and about “getting back into this thing,” as they say in the parlance of baseball.
But let's hold on here a minute. Even if the Cubs had won Saturday's nearly four-hour FOX-fest, we'd be talking about a team that was all the way up to, drum roll, 10 games under .500.
Instead, the Cubs lost 4-3 to the Yankees, setting their record back to 12 games under at 29-41.
Give the Cubs credit, though. They're still talking brave. Really, what else can they do?
“I thought we got beat, instead of beating ourselves,” said first baseman Carlos Pena, who was thrown out at the plate with the potential tying run while trying to score in the sixth. “We played hard. I like that.
“I think we're playing good baseball. We're going to try to take the series tomorrow.”
On the current homestand, the Cubs took three of four from the first-place Milwaukee Brewers before splitting the first two with the Yankees.
But there are still too many holes in the Cubs' game and on their roster, and a lot of that was evident Saturday.
Their pitchers gave up 10 walks, including 6 by starter Ryan Dempster and 3 by reliever Jeff Samardzija, who was charged with a critical ninth-inning run that gave the Yankees some margin for error with a 2-run lead.
Those walks helped run the Cubs' team pitch count to 186 for the game.
Cubs batters managed only 3 walks and 6 hits, and they were lucky the Yankees left 13 men on base or else this game could have been out of hand early instead of close.
The Cubs got home runs from Pena and Reed Johnson, but they're still trying to piece together a middle of the order. Manager Mike Quade had second baseman Blake DeWitt batting third again. DeWitt was 0-for-3, and he's now 1-for-12 in the 3-spot.
So to sum it up, the Cubs are last in ERA and WHIP (walks plus hits per 1 inning pitched), last in fielding and last in walks taken by their batters.
Quade has had his in-game decisions questioned on several occasions this year, too. On Saturday, he sent Dempster out for the sixth inning with 104 pitches thrown. The Yankees put two runners aboard in the sixth and scored a run.
In the bottom of the ninth, Johnson led off with a home run, and Alfonso Soriano singled. Quade had used the speedy Tony Campana earlier as a pinch hitter, so he sent Lou Montanez out to run for Soriano.
Before slow-footed catcher Geovany Soto came up to bat, third-base coach Ivan DeJesus called Soto over for a chat. Almost everybody figured a bunt was in order against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.
Instead, Soto swung at the first pitch and grounded into a double play before Jeff Baker struck out to end the game.
“I think ‘Sote' was expecting it,” Quade said of a possible sacrifice. “Given my situation bullpen wise, I decided to take a shot at winning the thing. I was not playing for the tie there.
“I wanted to make sure. If it's a tie game, he's bunting. If I had (Sean) Marshall (available in the bullpen) … I was really down to (Carlos) Marmol and Rodrigo (Lopez).
“One thing you don't want is that when a hitter's fully expecting that we're going to do this by the book, I'm going bunt, you want to put that out of his mind and say, ‘No, we're going to hit here and take a shot at winning.'”
Like so much this year for the Cubs, it didn't work. Not much has, despite the happy talk.
bmiles@dailyherald.com