A very long night for Cubs in 9-5 loss to Oakland

Cubs manager Lou Piniella is trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with a lot of pieces that don't seem to fit.

He moved some pieces around and kept others in place Tuesday night for the rain-delayed start of the game with the Oakland Athletics at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs played some sloppy defense in Oakland's 4-run fourth inning, with Derrek Lee committing 2 errors as the A's grabbed a 4-0 lead.

The Cubs scored twice in each of the fifth and sixth innings, but they ended up suffering a 9-5 loss, with 2 more errors coming from right fielder Tyler Colvin in Oakland's 3-run seventh.

"Tonight is not a big-league game; we played like a Single-A team," said Lee, owning up. "I set the tone. If I make the plays, we get out of the inning, and it's a whole different ballgame. Tonight's on me. It's unacceptable."

The scheduled 7:05 p.m. game did not start until 8:46, with Carlos Zambrano on the mound for the Cubs.

For the rest of it, Piniella moved rookie shortstop Starlin Castro up from the No. 8 spot in the batting order to second. Koyie Hill started for the second straight game at catcher ahead of Geovany Soto. And Colvin, as promised by Piniella, got another start in right field at the expense of Kosuke Fukudome.

The Cubs entered the game with an 8-1 record with Castro batting second. They were 5-13 with him batting eighth.

Piniella has tried to take the pressure off Castro by putting him at the bottom of the order.

"Castro hits for a higher average at the bottom part of the lineup," Piniella said. "We've won more consistently with him hitting second. He puts the ball in play. It gives us a chance to set up a nice hit-and-run combination."

Hill has started two games in a row and three of four behind the plate over Soto, ostensibly the team's No. 1 catcher.

"We're going to face two left-handers tomorrow and the next day, so Soto will be there," Piniella said. "We're going to face a couple left-handers over the weekend against the Angels. We're just trying to win baseball games right now."

The A's sent 10 men to the plate in the fourth, with Zambrano issuing 2 walks. Lee committed his first error on a bases-leaded chopper by pitcher Trevor Cahill. The next batter, Rajai Davis, hit a grounder to shortstop Starlin Castro, but Lee dropped the throw for his second error.

"I kicked two balls," Lee said. "It's embarrassing. It's tough to let the team down like that. Z's probably out of that inning, I just booted two balls."

The Cubs got 2 in the fifth but might have scored more had not Ryan Theriot been caught between second and third on a botched double-steal attempt.

"Good time to do it, but he gave him an inside move, and he (Theriot) went for it," said Piniella, whose team is 28-36.

Zambrano ended up working 6 innings, giving up 7 hits and 5 runs, only 2 of which were earned.

<p class="factboxheadblack">Bruce Miles' game tracker</p> <p class="News">Athletics 9, Cubs 5</p> <p class="News"><b>Error of their ways:</b> First baseman Derrek Lee committed 2 errors in Oakland's fourth inning. It was the first time in his career he committed 2 errors in one inning. Right fielder Tyler Colvin made 2 errors in Oakland's 3-run seventh.</p> <p class="News"><b>Running it up:</b> Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano threw 103 pitches in 6 innings. Twenty-seven came in the first inning, and 33 came in the fourth.</p> <p class="News"><b>Streaking:</b> A's third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a fourth-inning single. That's a career high.</p> <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=388141">Hawks give Dempster a night to remember<span class="date"> [6/15/10]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=388174">Fukudome gets some time to regroup<span class="date"> [6/15/10]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>