That didn’t take long. Now, did it?
Exactly three weeks ago, the Cubs were tied for first place with the Cincinnati Reds.
When they returned home Sunday night from a weeklong road trip to San Diego and Houston, the Cubs were in third place and just as close to the last-place Pittsburgh Pirates as they are to the first-place Reds.
Six games out of first. Six games out of last.
The Cubs put an appropriate exclamation point on the frightening free fall by frittering away a 2-0 lead and losing 19-6 to the Houston Astros in front of 18,944 delighted fans.
Houston’s 19 runs were a franchise record. They were the most runs the Cubs have allowed since a 19-5 loss to the Atlanta Braves on April 15, 1994.
Since the morning of June 5, when they were last tied with Cincinnati, the Cubs have gone 6-14. They have lost six of their last nine games and were 3-4 on the just-ended road trip.
Now, they head home where they have the worst record (30-53) in the majors over the last two seasons.
“I don’t pay much attention to whether it’s home or away,” said manager Jim Riggleman. “Our job is to prepare to win the game every day wherever we play.”
The Astros certainly were prepared to win Sunday despite a 9-17 home record. But even that record, coupled with a 19-9 mark on the road, is enough to put them a half-game ahead of the Cubs in second place.
“This was big for us because we didn’t want them to leave town ahead of us ,” said Houston manager Terry Collins. “It’s hard enough to catch one team. We don’t want to have two teams in front of us.”
That wasn’t a problem, thanks largely to the Cubs bullpen, which gave up six runs in a two-inning stretch when the Astros blew the game open.
Right-hander Mike Walker, who has pitched brilliantly most of the season, had a disastrous day, giving up two runs on three hits and a walk in just a third of an inning.
Left-hander Chris Nabholz replaced him and had an equally bad outing. He gave up four more runs on three hits and a walk in 1 2/3 innings. The big blow–the one that finally put the game out of reach–was a three-run homer by Jeff Bagwell, his ninth of the year.
And when Nabholz was done, Bryan Hickerson struggled through a 20-minute half-inning in which he faced 12 batters and gave up nine runs.
Walker, Nabholz and Hickerson combined to give up 15 runs on 12 hits in three innings.
The bullpen was battered because starter Frank Castillo went only 4 1/3 innings, his shortest outing of an otherwise dazzling year. Castillo hadn’t lost in his last five starts and came into the game with a 2.51 earned-run average–tied for seventh best in the league.
But Castillo served seven hits and four runs, only three of which were earned. His own error opened the first Houston rally of the day–a three-run uprising in the fifth that gave the Astros a lead for good.
