Giants finally get past Cubs as Cain outpitches Wells
The Cubs haven't had much of a shot in the wild-card race in weeks, but Sunday's 5-1 loss to the Giants in San Francisco about finished them off.
Coupled with the Rockies' 4-3 victory over St. Louis, the Cubs now face an elimination number of 1 for the wild card, meaning any combination of Colorado victories and Cubs losses totaling 1 eliminates the Cubs from playoff contention.
Randy Wells, on the heels of a victory last Tuesday in Milwaukee, started and kept the Cubs in the game until the sixth, when the Giants turned a 2-0 lead into a 5-0 margin.
Wells fell to 11-10 with a 3.18 ERA.
The Giants were aggressive with Wells from the start. Eugenio Velez and Fred Lewis swung at the first 2 pitches Wells threw, hitting back-to-back singles.
Velez later scored on an RBI forceout by Juan Uribe. In the second, Travis Ishikawa led off with a single, and Eli Whiteside doubled over the head of center fielder Sam Fuld to put the Giants up 2-0.
"It seems like it's a broken record with me putting the team in a hole early," Wells told reporters. "It wasn't my day again. I feel great and feel like I'm throwing OK. I'm a big believer in setting the tone early, and their guy comes down and gets us out and I go out there and let up a run.
"That's the thing I was upset about the whole day - not setting the tone. I'm not happy about that."
Wells settled down after that and worked out of trouble in the fifth. In the sixth, No. 8 hitter Ishikawa singled to lead off and came home on Whiteside's second double of the game. After pitcher Matt Cain sacrificed, Velez chased Wells with a run-scoring single to right.
Cain worked 8 innings, improving to 14-7 with a 2.88 ERA.
"Matt Cain was awfully good today," Cubs manager Lou Piniella told reporters. "He pounded the strike zone and had a good breaking ball."
The Cubs played their third straight game without first baseman Derrek Lee, who is out with recurring neck spasms, which flared up in Thursday's series opener.
They also were without reliever Kevin Gregg, who has not pitched since Sept. 20 because of soreness in his left rib cage.
<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p> <p class="News"><b>Better late:</b> The Cubs got their only run in the ninth inning, when Jeff Baker doubled with two outs and came home on Bobby Scales' triple.</p> <p class="News"><b>Not quite road warriors:</b> The Cubs went 6-4 on their last road trip of the season and finished the road portion of their schedule with a record of 37-44.</p> <p class="News"><b>He's streaking:</b> Kosuke Fukudome went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to six games. He's 9-for-22 during the streak.</p>