Those who insist on tuning out the Cubs now that the season is winding down and football is in the air may miss out on some classic displays of bad baseball.
The Cubs have turned bad baseball into an art form this year and in Friday’s 3-1 loss to Pittsburgh in Three Rivers Stadium, Miguel Batista gave kids everywhere a lesson in how not to pitch.
Though Pittsburgh’s starting lineup had a combined 60 home runs, Batista (0-4) made them all feel like mini-Mark McGwires. He walked nine of the 23 batters he faced in a four-inning stint, throwing 51 balls and only 48 strikes before manager Jim Riggleman finally yanked him.
Rather than focus on the negative, Riggleman looked at the bright side of Batista’s outing. Batista managed to escape a couple of jams with minimal damage and only three of the 12 baserunners he allowed had actual hits.
“We should’ve lost seven-to-something,” Riggleman said. “It’s an indication of how good Miguel’s stuff is. But he kept shooting himself in the foot.”
Not literally, of course. Had Batista shot at his foot Friday, he would have hit the scoreboard. Afterward, Batista was comforted by a teammate’s assertion that Seattle ace Randy Johnson once walked 13 batters in three innings.
“It’s nothing I should worry about,” he said. “Just a little thing we have to work on.”
Batista walked Joe Randa with the bases loaded in the first to force in the first Pirates run, and never located the strike zone thereafter. Jason Schmidt (9-7) shut down the Cubs on six hits, keeping the Pirates within striking range of Houston in the NL Central.
Batista now has walked 16 batters in his last 15 1/3 innings, a pace that would knock him out of the rotation on most major-league teams. Riggleman said Batista would remain in the rotation.
