Remember the good old days when the Cubs` pitching staff could hold the opposition to less than a touchdown and a field goal?
Those days are gone.
For the third consecutive game, an opponent reached double figures in scoring Monday night and embarrassed what, until fairly recently, had been the most effective pitching staff in the major leagues.
This time, it was the lowly New York Mets who did the dastardly deed, 10-8. Yes, the same Mets who have the worst team batting average in the majors.
The Mets came back from a 5-0 deficit, a 6-5 deficit and an 8-7 deficit, then held on with the tying runs in scoring position and two outs in the ninth inning.
All you need to know about this one was the linescore on winning pitcher Jeff Innis (6-8). He worked just two-thirds of an inning and gave up three hits and a walk. And, for that, he got the ”W.”
Sometime in the bottom of the ninth inning, a rowdy fan in the upper deck, his patience exhausted, stood up and yelled: ”Is this the ugliest game you ever saw?”
Presumably it was a rhetorical question, because everyone knew the answer.
”We`ve pitched too good all year to let the past few games ruin it for us,” said a frustrated manager Jim Lefebvre. ”We`re going to find out in the next 20 games who can suck it up and snap us out of it. We`re going to find out a lot about our staff.”
Ten days ago, the staff had a team earned-run average of 2.96. That was before it gave up 13 runs to the Pirates last Wednesday, 11 runs to the Cardinals on Saturday, 10 runs to the Cardinals on Sunday and then 10 runs to the Mets.
The new staff ERA is 3.23, still the best in the National League, but barely. The Braves are at 3.28.
”I don`t know what`s happened to the staff, but I know I just lost my concentration,” said starter Frank Castillo, who squandered a 5-0 lead in the sixth inning. ”I let my teammates down. I feel terrible. I had a five-run lead and couldn`t hold it. I just lost my concentration.”
Castillo, looking for his third consecutive victory, gave up just two hits and struck out eight through the first five innings.
But rookie Ryan Thompson led off the sixth with the first triple of his major-league career. Thirty minutes later, when the inning finally ended, Castillo was long gone and the score was 5-5.
It hardly mattered that only three of the runs off Castillo were earned. Two runs came after an error by Jeff Kunkel, who was playing second base for Ryne Sandberg. Sandberg hurt a tendon in his right hand when he was jammed by a pitch batting in the first inning.
His injury isn`t considered serious, but the continuing failure of the Cubs` pitching is. In the last three games, the Cubs have trotted out 16 pitchers just to try to get through 27 innings.
The bullpen alone has given up 13 runs on 19 hits and eight walks in the last nine innings.
Even with those horrendous numbers, the Cubs had a chance to win this one-thanks to Andre Dawson, who appears to be one of the few players on the field who realizes the season isn`t over.
Dawson went 4 for 5, including his 296th career home run, drove in three runs and scored two. For all he did, though, Dawson ended up playing a big role in the loss. He misplayed a high arching fly ball that dropped for a single to keep the winning rally alive in the ninth.
That came with Kevin Bass pinch-hitting with one out, runners on first and second and the Cubs leading 8-7. Chuck McElroy (4-7) gave up that bloop single and eventually was charged with the loss when Charlie O`Brien lined a bases-loaded double just out of Derrick May`s reach in left-center.
Jeff Robinson, the last of five Cubs pitchers, gave up that hit. But not before he had struck out rookie Jeff Kent, who would have been the last out of the game if Dawson had caught Bass` fly.
