Plenty of scrutiny on this loss

Rarely do the Cubs lose at Wrigley Field these days, but when it happens like on Wednesday night to the Cincinnati Reds, it's bigger news outside the clubhouse.

"The bottom line is you can't win every day," third baseman Aramis Ramirez said after the 2-1 loss to the Reds dropped the Cubs to 46-18 at home.

The flyball that Alfonso Soriano broke badly on and let fall for a double to start the seventh inning, leading to the winning run, will be scrutinized this morning as will Kosuke Fukudome's inability to get Jim Edmonds home from third base with nobody out in the fourth inning. But the Cubs were seeing only today's game against the Reds and not dwelling on what went wrong for one night.

"We can still win the series, which is all we're trying to do," Ramirez said.

The Cubs got another sparkling performance from a starting pitcher, but in the end Ted Lilly was one-upped by the Reds' Bronson Arroyo, who gave up only 3 hits in 7 innings.

"We expect to win every game as well (as the fans), but you can't take anything away from the job Bronson did," shortstop Ryan Theriot said. "We got 3 hits. He used every pitch he throws. I saw a curveball, a slider,a four-seam (fastball), a sinker and a changeup. He threw all of them."

Lilly retired the first 10 batters he faced and 15 of the first 16. Quality starts have become the norm for the Cubs and in the middle of the reasons why is catcher Geovany Soto.

Soto is clearly the frontrunner to be the National League's rookie of the year, and if he does become the first Cub to receive the honor since Kerry Wood in 1998 most voters will no doubt look at his 18 homers, 69 RBI and .285 batting average.

But perhaps even more impressive than those offensive numbers has been the way Soto handles the Cubs' veteran-laden starting staff. Manager Lou Piniella said the coaching staff "got an inkling" late last season that Soto "took pride in handling a pitching staff," and it's turned out to be true.

"That's probably your biggest job as a catcher," Soto said. "The pitchers watch videos and I watch videos to try prepare the most I can on how to pitch hitters. That's probably why the pitchers give me a lot of credit, just because I'm doing my homework and trying to improve every day and trying for them to have a great game."