Another tough-luck loss for Cubs' Garza
If you look at only won-loss record, you're looking past a whole lot of good done by the Cubs' Matt Garza.
Once again, Garza pitched well enough to deserve a victory Tuesday night.
Once again, either circumstances or managerial decisions conspired to rob him of one as the Philadelphia Phillies erased a 2-0 deficit with 2 runs in the eighth and 2 more in the ninth for a 4-2 victory at Wrigley Field.
Chalk this one up to managerial decisions.
The first came when Garza came to bat leading off the bottom of the seventh inning and the Cubs ahead 2-0. By that point, Garza had thrown 113 pitches and had given up a pair of hard-hit singles in the top of the inning.
Garza struck out. The Cubs later got a pair of hits in the inning.
Out for the eighth went Garza. He promptly gave up a leadoff single to Jimmy Rollins. Manager Mike Quade came out and got Garza in favor of lefty Sean Marshall.
Before you could say "blown save," Michael Martinez singled and Chase Utley hit a 2-run double.
The Phillies got the go-ahead runs in the ninth on a 2-run double by Martinez off Marshall. Quade explained things this way: "We were going to go one hitter at a time. We had decided to stay away from Marm (reliever Carlos Marmol) and try to get the last six outs with Garz and Marsh and Woody (Kerry Wood) . We were going to go one hitter at a time to see if we couldn't get an out or two from him."
We'll never know if things would have been different for the Cubs offensively if Quade had sent up a pinch hitter or if Quade had let Marshall start the inning fresh.
But the moves, or lack of them, undoubtedly will keep talk going that Quade leaves his starting pitchers in either one batter or one inning too long, especially with the pitch count.
"He's made 117, 116, 118, but given the bullpen situation, he said he felt fine," Quade said. "I've seen him close before and would have liked to have seen him get the leadoff guy. He had handled Rollins fine."
For Garza, the individual results have to be frustrating:
* He pitched 7 innings of 4-hit 1-run ball Tuesday and came away with no-decision as his record held at 4-7 and his ERA went from 3.97 to 3.80.
* On July 14, he pitched 7 shutout innings only to watch the bullpen give up 6 runs to the Florida Marlins in the ninth as the Cubs blew a 2-0 lead in the ninth inning to lose 6-3.
* On July 2, Garza lost a complete game, falling 1-0 to the White Sox.
"You just keep going," he said. "If I don't throw Rollins that curveball in the eighth, I'm still in there, if I throw something hard maybe, a slider, fastball in.
"I'm pretty sure my guys aren't doing it (blowing saves) on purpose. They're out there, and they want to win just as bad as I do. There's no blame."
Until the eighth, the Cubs were enjoying their second straight good night against a top-flight Phillies pitcher. They got some help from the heat Monday in beating Roy Halladay.
They jumped on lefty Cliff Lee for 2 runs in the first inning as Reed Johnson led off with the first of his 2 doubles and rode home on Starlin Castro's line-drive homer over the wall in left field.
The offense wasted several chances later, leaving two runners stranded in each of the second, fifth and seventh innings.
bmiles@dailyherald.com