Dempster solid, but Wood way off again for Cubs

Cubs president Theo Epstein is taking the good with the bad, the lucky with the unlucky.

There has been some of each for the Cubs in the early going, and Tuesday night's 3-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves pretty much featured it all.

Pitcher Ryan Dempster has been good, very good. He's has an ERA of 1.02. He's also been very unlucky, as he is without a win and has a loss.

Reliever Kerry Wood hasn't been good, and that continued Tuesday. Wood turned a 1-1 game into a 3-1 deficit in the eighth as he gave up 2 runs on 2 hits while walking two. The only thing that saved Wood from further possible damage was an inning-ending pickoff with the dangerous Jason Heyward at-bat with a 3-0 count.

On his way off the field, Wood tossed both his glove and his cap into the stands.

Wood was more than happy to talk about his outing, but not about the glove and hat tosses. When a reporter tried to ask, Wood ended the proceedings.

"Irrelevant, dude," he said. "Why the (bleep) would you even bring that up? You guys have a good night."

Wood came off the disabled list last week after a bout with shoulder fatigue. He faced six batters, throwing 22 pitches, 9 strikes. His record fell to 0-2 with a 14.54 ERA.

Michael Bourn led off with a single. Wood walked Martin Prado, who was trying to give an out away with a bunt. After a slow-developing forceout, Wood walked Brian McCann before Dan Uggla singled hard to left-center.

"I made pretty good pitches tonight," Wood said. "The walk to McCann with a base open there (it wasn't open), I'm not going to give in to him. I made a good pitch, I thought, to Uggla, turned around and we had the shift (on). When things are going bad, you don't get breaks. I didn't get any tonight."

Dempster's the one not getting any breaks. In 5 starts, the offense has scored 8 runs while he's been on the mound, and the bullpen has done its damage.

"That's OK," Dempster said. "It will come. This is more of a bummer because we had a chance to win three in a row and a chance to win a series, and the middle game is nice (to win)."

The Cubs are 12-18 for the season after beginning 3-11. As for Epstein, he was seeing better things.

"There have been some really good things happening," he said. "It's baseball. You don't get too high when things are going well or too low when they're not.

"I think the effort's been there all year. We've played hard and trying to play the game the right way. It's hard to see sometimes when you're losing close games and when breaks are going against you like they were. I think everyone can appreciate it when results come as they have lately."

Even before this tough loss, Epstein seemed to be feeling Dempster's pain.

"Demp, I mean he's been as good as anybody," Epstein said "The won-loss record is a little bit out of his control at times, but he's done a great job for us every time he's taken the ball. I hope that continues for him."