They steam mussels in this town better than anywhere on earth. They could`ve done it Tuesday night anywhere in Veterans Stadium.
On an evening made for losing weight, the Cubs lost for the first time in six games, bowing to the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1 before 25,478 sweat-stained people in the Vet.
Jeff Pico, the Cubs` starter, couldn`t get past the fourth inning. The rookie right-hander gave up eight hits, three walks and four runs in 3 1/3 innings and generally never found his rhythm.
”I was trying to get the ball down, but I didn`t adjust,” said Pico
(2-2). ”I made way too many mistakes.”
There were two memorable plays in the game. One was kind of pivotal. The other was kind of funny.
The Cubs already trailed 6-1 but seemed to have a wilted Philadelphia starter David Palmer (3-6) on the soggy ropes in the sixth. Rafael Palmeiro opened the inning with a walk, and he went to second when Andre Dawson hit a bullet off Palmer`s lower back for a hit.
Ryne Sandberg followed with a line single to left, and Palmeiro headed for home.
”Rafael beat the ball there,” said manager Don Zimmer. ”The big boy
(Lance Parrish) didn`t let him get to home plate.”
Mark Grace grounded into a double play after that, and the only Cub baserunner over the next three innings against Palmer and Steve Bedrosian was issued a meaningless walk in the seventh.
Phil Bradley`s throw and Parrish`s block were pivotal. The funny play came in the Phillies` fourth.
Pico, after giving up two runs in the first inning and struggling through the next two, allowed a leadoff double to Milt Thompson in the fourth, and Thompson went to third on Steve Jeltz`s ground out. Palmer, who has two homers this season, then ripped a double over third base that scored Thompson.
That`s when Pico threw his second wild pitch of the game. Palmer headed for third and got there with a move worthy of nomination for this year`s Ron Santo Grace on the Basepaths Award.
”I was just getting ready to slide, and then Vance Law moved off the base,” Palmer said. ”I decided not to, and got my feet tangled up.
”When it first happened, I thought I broke my leg. When I realized it didn`t-that I landed on my head-I decided I was just going to get up and pretend nothing happened. What I really wanted to do was dig a hole at third and climb in it.”
He wasn`t there long enough. Juan Samuel doubled to left-center-one of six Phillie doubles for the night-and it was 4-1.
Pico`s last man of the inning and the game was Von Hayes, whom he walked intentionally before Zimmer summoned Mike Capel to pitch to Mike Schmidt. Capel got Schmidt on a double play, and the Cubs were still in it.
But it became a five-run lead in the Philadelphia fifth. Frank DiPino, the third Cub pitcher, walked Parrish, the leadoff man in the inning, and he went to third on Chris James` double. Bradley`s liner was snared by a pulled- in Sandberg on a fine play, but a fly ball by Thompson got Parrish home, and Jeltz`s double drove in James to make it 6-1.
The Cubs had started out like the team that had 28 hits in its previous two games. Shawon Dunston led off the first inning with a ringing double, and Palmeiro brought him home on the next pitch with a single up the middle.
The lead lasted only until the bottom of the inning. Samuel singled to left leading off, and he went to third on Hayes` double off the wall in right-center. Pico`s first wild pitch sent Samuel across the plate, and a ground single by Schmidt scored Hayes from third.
Palmer, after Palmeiro`s RBI single in the first, retired the next 12 Cubs. Flurries in the fifth and the fateful sixth yielded nothing.
”We just didn`t pitch too good tonight, and we didn`t hit,” Zimmer said. ”Pico just didn`t pitch good tonight, and DiPino got some balls up himself.”
