Mother Nature throws a curve at Cubs

By the time the last, loud bolt of lightning hit around 11:13 Monday night, Lance Berkman had seen, heard and felt enough.

"I've never played a game before where I was fearful for my life," the Houston Astros first baseman said before running off the field and taking his team with him.

It seemed to matter little to either the Cubs or the Astros that Houston walked away with a rain-shortened 2-0 victory on the most bizarre night in recent memory at Wrigley Field.

Lightning halted play with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, and a second batch of heavy rain finally washed this one away.

"It actually looked like somebody stood above the the stadium with a Zip-Loc bag and opened it up," said Cubs starting itcheer Ryan Dempster, who wound up taking the loss after pitching 5 innings.

The first rainstorm hit at 7:39 p.m., halting play with the Astros coming up in the sixth inning already ahead 2-0. About a half-hour after that, the rain seemed to come in massive waves from several directions.

Play resumed after 2 hours and 45 minutes. The Cubs' brand-new playing field held up well after the deluge, but after the first delay, lightning criss-crossed the sky and came crashing down in jagged bolts.

After Alfonso Soriano struck out to lead off the bottom of the eighth, a loud crack of lightning and thunder seemed to hit right outside the park, prompting umpire Wally Bell to halt play a few second after the Astros scurried off.

"The lightning, in my opinion, even though it lit up the skies, it was deep and away from the ballpark," Bell told a pool reporter. "I had talked to the groundskeeper several times about the weather, and he said there were possible storms coming in.

"I was concerned about the lightning. When that last one hit, it was too close, even for us, and I pulled them off. I would never put any team or player or umpire in harm's way."

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry met the media after the game and praised the umpires and the grounds crew.

"I commend also the umpire crew, Wally Bell, of giving it the best effort to finish a ballgame and hanging with a 2-hour and 45-minute delay, completely understanding the importance of games and races, and try not to have them be five-inning ballgames," Hendry said. "Wally really deserves a lot of credit."

Hendry reiterated that the lightning was not believed to be close untl the last one hit.

As far as the baseball went, the Cubs started slowly against Houston starting pitcher Brian Moehler while the Astros put single runs across against Dempster in the first and fourth innings.

Dempster opened the game by getting Kaz Matsui on a groundout. Miguel Tejada then singled and took second on Lance Berkman's flyout to center.

Carlos Lee followed with an RBI single. Cubs right fielder Kosuke Fukudome's throw home sailed into the stands behind the plate, allowing Lee to take third, but Dempster avoided further trouble.

"It (stinks) because we were on the losing end of hit," said Dempster, who fell to 12-5. "You wait around all night. There's really no other alternative. ... It's like a wasted day at work."

When play resumed, Chad Gaudin replaced Dempster. The Cubs got a hit in the seventh against the Houston bullpen, but that was it.

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