Dwight Smith obviously isn`t learning from his mistakes. Two weeks ago, he was thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple with the Cubs trailing 1-0 late in a game in San Diego.
And on Monday night, Smith failed to score from second on Shawon Dunston`s clean single in the ninth inning. The blunder proved costly when the Cubs loaded the bases but came up empty in the 3-2 defeat, and it earned Smith an arm-around-the-shoulder talk with manager Don Zimmer before Tuesday`s game. ”I just talked to him about it said there were 16,000 people in the park, and 16,000 knew the game was going to be tied except the guy on second,” Zimmer said.
Frey frustrated: General Manager Jim Frey was to return to Chicago Wednesday, still searching for a pitcher but finding little value on the trade market.
”Do you know how bad the situation is right now?” Frey said. ”The guys who become available, they appear to be the same kind of guys you`ve got.”
One of those guys is Mike Flanagan, who was released by Toronto this week. The Cubs were among five teams interested in the 38-year-old, but the Boston Red Sox appear to have the edge.
In a pinch: The Braves used pitcher Derek Lilliquist as a pinch-hitter Tuesday night. That`s not as strange as it might seem; Lilliquist is hitting .429 (6 for 14).
Goodbye, Jody: The Braves released former Cubs catcher Jody Davis. The 33-year-old Davis, sent to Atlanta at the end of the 1988 season, had 2 hits in 12 at-bats.
