They were the same questions. It was the same game.
The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cubs. Again. The Cubs left a season-high 12 men on base. Again. The big hit wasn`t there. Again.
”I don`t understand it,” Rafael Palmeiro said after Tuesday`s 6-3 loss in Wrigley Field. ”We can`t beat these guys.”
”You can`t explain it,” Andre Dawson said. ”They just happen to play their best baseball against us. I don`t feel we`re overmatched in any way.”
”I sat in the dugout today, I looked at their team on the field; I looked at our team on the field,” manager Don Zimmer said. ”I`m going to let you decide how much difference there is to be the record that they have against us.”
The record they have against the Cubs is 9-2 this season, 23-6 over the last two.
Right now, the Cubs as a team are hitting .265, with 262 runs scored and 54 home runs. Their team earned run average is 3.66.
The Pirates as a team are hitting .257 with 289 runs scored and 57 home runs. Their team earned run average is 3.65.
The runs and homers were closer until two days ago.
The Cubs have made 48 errors, the Pirates 52. The Pirates are 10th in the league in stolen bases, the Cubs 12th.
No clues there. No clues anywhere.
”It`s just one of those things that happen,” Zimmer said. ”I wish I had the answer.”
Jamie Moyer (3-7) wasn`t the answer Tuesday. He tied his season high with seven strikeouts in his four innings but made three major mistakes, all of which cleared the wall.
In the second, Darnell Coles got one into the wind and sent it halfway up the vacant center-field bleachers. In the fourth, Bobby Bonilla hit one into the street. Moyer walked the next man, Coles, then grooved a 1-2 pitch to Randy Milligan, who lined it just over the basket in left. The Pirates led 4-0.
The walk to Coles was the only one off Moyer in his last three starts.
”I made a couple of mistakes, and that hurt,” Moyer said. ”Solo home runs are fine. But the walk, that`s not giving my teammates a chance to make a play.”
His teammates gave a hint of things to come in the first inning, when they had runners on first and second with one out and failed to get a run. But after 13 straight scoreless innings, Cub bats finally produced more than noise in the fifth.
With one out, Shawon Dunston lined his first home run since April 22, and the Cubs` first in a week, into the left-field bleachers. Singles by Palmeiro and Dawson put runners on first and second, and they stayed there as Ryne Sandberg popped out to short left.
Vance Law was at the plate when Palmeiro stole third, and Law drove him in with a base hit. Jody Davis` single got Dawson home from second, and it was 4-3.
Then they fell back into Monday`s two-out futility mode:
– Sixth inning, runners on first and second, Palmeiro grounds into a double play.
– Seventh inning, tying run at second, Jerry Mumphrey grounds out.
– Ninth inning, runners on first and third, Rick Sutcliffe grounds out.
Sutcliffe was pinch-hitting at the time because the only position player available was Angel Salazar.
Before Sutcliffe, the pinch-hitters Tuesday were Jim Sundberg (ground out), Dave Martinez (pop out), Mumphrey (ground out), Manny Trillo (pop out)
and Damon Berryhill (strikeout).
For the season, Cub pinch-hitters are 7 for 74 (.095). Mumphrey is 2 for 24 (.083) pinch-hitting.
The pitchers are hitting .090.
”As long as he`s here, I`ve got to keep sending him up hitting,” Zimmer said of Mumphrey, who would rather be somewhere else. ”I send up the guys I have on my bench.”
Pittsburgh added runs in the eighth and ninth off Pat Perry, the first scored off him in eight Cub appearances. The run in the ninth came on Coles`
second homer of the game.
The helpful wind wasn`t just blowing out for Pittsburgh.
”We`ve had a lot of trouble against the Pirates,” Dawson said, ”but it`s just unbelievable that under the circumstances, the elements, we`ve only manufactured three runs in two days.”
”We have some guys who have some high averages,” Zimmer said, ”but even the guys who have been hitting for high averages haven`t been hitting with men on base. That`s what`s hurt us offensively.”
There`s the answer.
