It all happened so quickly.
In the span of four hitters, Jon Lieber lost his shutout, Eric Young lost his ability to catch a routine throw and the Cubs lost their lead over the Houston Astros.
The result was a 5-2 loss Friday night in the first game of the Cubs’ biggest series thus far this season.
Kerry Wood had said the four-game series against the second-place Astros would “determine the rest of the season.”
Cubs manager Don Baylor, mindful that the teams meet 13 more times this season, took a different tone.
“This is one of the many tests during the year,” he said. “It’s not do-or-die for either team because we play each other so many times.”
But the Astros, who trimmed the Cubs’ lead in the National League Central to two games with the victory, have to feel good after passing this test.
Trailing 2-0 in the fifth, the Astros rallied against Lieber.
Richard Hidalgo and Vinny Castilla led off with back-to-back singles, prompting catcher Brad Ausmus to lay down a sacrifice bunt.
First baseman Matt Stairs fielded the ball and threw to Young, who was covering first base.
The ball fell in and out of Young’s glove for an error.
“I don’t know if he took his eye off the ball or what,” Baylor said. “I didn’t ask him.”
With the bases loaded Astros manager Larry Dierker pulled starter Tim Redding in favor of pinch-hitter Orlando Merced. Wise move.
Merced jumped on Lieber’s slider, wrapping a line drive just inside the right-field foul pole. The ball barely cleared the wall at the 326-foot mark.
It was Merced’s third pinch homer of the season and it gave the Astros a 4-2 lead.
Houston scored its fifth run later in the inning when Craig Biggio doubled and scored on a Joe Girardi passed ball.
The Cubs fell to 10-33 in games in which they’ve failed to score four runs.
“We’re going to have to show some offense in the next three days,” Baylor said. Enron Field “is a hitter’s park. Every team’s guys love hitting here. When you score two runs, it wasn’t an offensive park for us.”
Ron Coomer’s sixth home run put the Cubs ahead in the second.
Sammy Sosa drove in Delino DeShields in the fifth for their final run.
Cleanup hitter Stairs went hitless in three at-bats. He is 3-for-26 in his last nine games.
