The following message is directed to frustrated Cubs fans who have been puzzled this disappointing season by the up-and-down behavior of their team.
You have company. Manager Tom Trebelhorn shares the same feeling you do.
“It kind of mystifies me,” Trebelhorn said Sunday after the San Diego Padres won the weekend series two games to one with a 5-1 victory at Wrigley Field.
“It’s funny. You can’t project, predict or plan what to expect.”
The weekend’s San Diego series was a perfect example of the unpredictable nature of the team that sagged to a 20-36 (.357) record at home.
Going into the series, Trebelhorn said, “The bookend games looked good for us, but the middle game looked tough.”
He was referring to the pitching matchups. On Friday and Sunday, respectively, San Diego started Scott Sanders and Bill Krueger, a couple of struggling pitchers with ERAs in the 5.00 to 6.00 range. On Saturday, the Cubs would send Frank Castillo, recently recalled from the minor leagues, against Joey Hamilton, who had an 8-5 record and a slick 2.68 ERA for his last-place club.
The Cubs made Sanders look like Cy Young on Friday, getting just two hits and losing 4-2. Castillo pitched the game of his life Saturday, beating Hamilton 7-1.
Then in Sunday’s rubber game, before a crowd of 38,379, Kevin Foster, who led the staff in ERA, surrendered 13 hits in less than five innings. And Krueger, who had a 5.91 ERA, scattered four hits and breezed in his first complete game as a National Leaguer.
What’s it all mean? Well, with the San Francisco Giants coming into Wrigley for what could be the last three games before the strike, Trebelhorn may finally be getting a handle on his players.
“I welcome the chance to face a couple of good, tough pitchers like John Burkett and Buddy Black,” said the Cubs skipper, again playing his “Triple P” game of project, predict and plan. “We’ve done better against tough pitchers. I like our chances better against them than against guys with 6.00 earned-run averages.”
Why have the Cubs hit better against tougher pitchers? “I don’t know,” answered Trebelhorn.
Tony Gwynn, who hits everyone, gave the Padres a 1-0 first-inning lead with an RBI double, the first of three hits that raised his average to .392.
But thanks to three double plays, Foster trailed just 1-0 with two out and nobody on base in the fifth.
Then Gwynn homered, Derek Bell singled, Eddie Williams homered, Scott Livingston singled and two Cubs errors made it a 5-0 ballgame. The Cubs’ only run came on Mark Grace’s homer in the sixth.
“A bad day overall,” said Evanston native Foster. “The first couple innings, I got the ball up.”
How does it feel being a rookie and pitching to a man seeking to become baseball’s first .400 hitter since Ted Williams in 1941?
“I try not to pay attention to names,” said Foster. “Tony Gwynn is a great hitter, but when you pitch up in the strike zone, anybody will hit it.”
Why didn’t Trebelhorn hook Foster before he surrendered 13 hits, five of them in the fifth?
“Nobody I had at that time was head and shoulders better than Kevin,” said Trebelhorn.
———-
Next: San Francisco, Monday, 7:05 p.m., WGN-Ch. 9
