In the 55 years since the Cubs have played in a World Series and the 92 years since they’ve won one, they have developed and refined an art form that continues to attract fans.
No matter how badly the Cubs perform, they usually manage to treat their customers to a glimmer of hope–a shining promise of better times–and this keeps the turnstiles clicking.
Such was the case in Wrigley Field on Sunday when another 37,557 fans saw the Cubs lose the 13th of their last 16 games, 7-6 to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who scored the winning run on losing pitcher Todd Van Poppel’s 10th-inning wild pitch.
The bright spot of an otherwise gloomy performance clearly was the 11-strikeout, five-hit, seven-inning showing by Kerry Wood, the rookie sensation of 1998 who has struggled since he underwent reconstructive elbow surgery April 8, 1999.
“I had the best stuff I’ve had since the surgery,” said Wood, 23. “I hope to build on it.”
Wood had his first double-digit strikeout game since the surgery. He left the game with the Cubs leading 5-3. Wood walked only three and located almost two-thirds of his pitches, 77 of 118, in the strike zone. The only damage off him were Bruce Aven’s two homers.
“I was throwing strikes from the get-go,” said Wood. “That was the big thing. I adjusted. I slowed down my mechanics. In Houston, in my last start, I started rushing a little.”
Cubs manager Don Baylor said Wood’s fastball “exploded down in the zone, and he had his good slider. I knew when he got Shawn Green on a called strike to strike out the side in the first inning, he had his best stuff he’s had all year.”
Wood drew angry words from Dodger manager Davey Johnson for firing a pitch close to Alex Cora’s head on the first pitch after Aven’s second homer in the fifth. The pitch ticked Cora’s bat for a foul strike.
“That one was flagrant,” said Johnson. “It was behind his Cora’s head. Wood is too good a pitcher for that kind of stuff.”
“I was not trying to hit Cora,” said Wood. “I was trying to come up and in, and I came too close to his head. No one got hurt.”
The Dodgers and Ismael Valdes quickly retaliated. Valdes came close to Mark Grace on the first pitch in the home fifth, drawing a warning from umpire Mark Wegner. Valdes was ejected when he hit Grace on the shoulder four pitches later.
“I have no problem with that,” said Grace. “Absolutely none. Ismael did what he had to do. It’s an unwritten rule. Once he hit me, we were all even.”
In contrast to Wood’s sharp command, the four relievers who followed him floundered. Felix Heredia faced only three batters. Two hit safely, and both scored.
Among them, Steve Rain, Kyle Farnsworth and Van Poppel struck out none and walked seven in the 22/3 innings they worked. Their combined strike-to-ball ratio was 25 to 41, 38 percent.
“The walks and the wild pitch beat us,” said Baylor. “When you walk that many, they usually come back and hurt you, and today they did.”
The Dodgers scored the winning run in the 10th when pinch-hitter Jeff Branson walked and later scored on Van Poppel’s wild pitch.
“I didn’t do my job,” said Van Poppel. “I made close pitches, but they missed. You can’t put players on base like that. The wild pitch was a curve that broke down into the dirt.”
The Cubs led 5-1, but their only score after the third inning came on an eighth-inning home run by Roosevelt Brown, who had been called up from Class AAA Iowa to replace Rondell White, whose season ended Saturday when he sustained a dislocated shoulder.
The Cubs left nine runners on base. It would have been more, but the Dodgers turned four double plays.
