One obvious conclusion can be reached after 10 seasons of night baseball at Wrigley Field.
Those who visit Clark and Addison streets after dark are as discriminating as White Sox fans, booing at such routine events as a long home run by an opposing player.
In the daytime, it’s a different story altogether. Seldom is heard a discouraging word, even if the Cubs are getting the daylights kicked out of them.
Tuesday’s schedule called for a night game at Wrigley, so the boos were loud and clear during Florida’s 11-0 pounding of the Cubs.
The Marlins cranked out 17 hits and four home runs off Cubs pitching, including the street shot onto Waveland Avenue by Gary Sheffield, and two by Jeff Conine, who had five RBIs despite not having an at-bat until the eighth inning.
Marlins rookie Livan Hernandez (8-0) maintained his perfect record, holding the Cubs to two harmless singles in six innings. The Cubs wound up with four hits, all singles, while falling to 1-8 against the Marlins.
“They just dominated us,” Cubs manager Jim Riggleman said. “I don’t know what we could’ve done different. We could’ve hit him, I guess. But he wasn’t going to let that happen.”
Cubs pitchers have now allowed a league-leading 157 home runs, and they can’t even blame the ballpark. The wind has blown in at Wrigley in 40 of their 66 home games.
It took two batters before the game was out of reach. Devon White tripled leading off against Miguel Batista (0-2), scoring on a sacrifice fly by Edgar Renteria to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead. Relievers Lee Stevens, Kent Bottenfield and Ramon Tatis gave up seven runs in the last three innings, as the bullpen continued to melt away.
“It’s been roughed up,” Riggleman said.
No doubt.
