Low-five as Cubs get swept

Let's look at the bright side of what has become a five-game losing streak for the Cubs.

At least they haven't lost any ground in the NL Central race to the Milwaukee Brewers since Sunday while knocking three more critical days off the calendar.

The Cubs' bats were as chilled as the night air at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night in a 4-0 loss to the Houston Astros, who got a complete game from Randy Wolf to sweep the series while stretching their winning streak to eight games.

Fortunately for the Cubs, the Brewers dropped their third straight game to the New York Mets earlier Wednesday at Miller Park to stay 4 games out of first place.

"You're going to have a little adversity along the way, and we're having it now," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "We'll see how we respond."

It was the end of a seven-game homestand that saw the Cubs go 2-5. Now they head out on a key 10-game road trip and won't be back at Wrigley until Sept. 16, when they start a series with Milwaukee.

"We've been playing well on the road lately," Piniella said. "Let's go back and regroup, put a little streak together and go from there."

The Cubs managed just 6 singles off Wolf (9-11) and only came close to scoring in the sixth inning when Ronny Cedeno was thrown out at the plate by left fielder Ty Wigginton after a single by Alfonso Soriano.

With Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden both shut down with sore arms, it fell to Ryan Dempster to come up with a big effort. Dempster didn't pitch poorly, but his support from a struggling offense was zilch.

"It was not good enough," Dempster said of his performance. "There won't be a column in the paper tomorrow for a good job."

The Astros got a run in the second and 2 in the fifth after two-out rallies.

Hunter Pence doubled with two outs in the second and scored following a walk on a single by Humberto Quintero.

In the fifth, Michael Bourn's two-out single was followed by Wigginton's line-drive homer to left into the teeth of a cold 12-mph north wind.

"Two outs and nobody on, and I gave up 5 hits and 3 runs," Dempster said. "That kind of tells the story right there. I could have done a better job putting people away."

The Cubs were swept for only the third time all season and for the first time since the White Sox did it on the South Side in late June.

"It's frustrating for everybody," Dempster said. "It's frustrating for me because I didn't feel I did as good as I could have tonight. It's frustrating for the hitters who hit the ball good and it didn't go anywhere. It's frustrating for the guys who came up with runners in scoring position and didn't get them in. It's frustrating for the guys who maybe had a bad play in the field. It's frustrating for Lou and frustrating for our coaches.

"But the most important thing we have to remember is we have a really, really good team. You're going to go through bumps in the road, and sometimes when they're later in the season, they're magnified a little but, but the nice part is we're in first place so the pressure's not on us."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=232447">Piniella has 'all the confidence in the world' in Marshall <span class="date"> [9/3/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=232435">Zambrano, Harden situations becoming troubling for Cubs fans <span class="date"> [9/3/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>