Antonio Alfonseca stared at the tops of his shoes Friday night while trudging to a nearly empty dugout.
Third baseman Kevin Orie jogged past and tapped him lightly on the back.
But it had to come as little consolation for Alfonseca, who had just failed to close out a victory for the second night in a row.
The Pirates scored twice on him in the ninth to emerge with a 5-4 victory over a Cubs team that could be commissioned to write “The Idiot’s Guide to Losing.”
Alfonseca, who blew his eighth save in 27 tries, spoiled Sammy Sosa’s 498th career home run, Chris Stynes’ dramatic pinch hit in the eighth and Orie’s personal comeback from a costly first-inning error.
Other than that, he had a great night.
“We did some good things in the game,” Cubs manager Bruce Kimm said, trying to remain upbeat. “But what will be remembered is that we weren’t able to hold the lead.”
And as a result Alfonseca might not be able to hold his job–for this season or next.
Kimm said he would “give some thought” to demoting Alfonseca.
“I want to win games as much as anybody,” Kimm said. “When you get in a position to win games and don’t, it makes it extra tough.”
Kimm said he would either stick with Alfonseca, use a mix of relievers or pick a new closer–perhaps right-hander Joe Borowski, the only reliable arm in the bullpen.
After falling to a season-high 26 games below .500, everyone seems to be thinking about next year.
Not even Sosa seems fired up about becoming the 18th player in baseball history to hit 500 home runs.
“I just want to get the stuff done,” he said. “I want to get it over with and get ready for next year.”
Sosa’s 48th homer of the season came on an 0-2 pitch from Pirates right-hander Salomon Torres. Sosa crushed the outside fastball into the right-center field bleachers.
The Cubs play twice more in Pittsburgh before closing out their season with six games at Wrigley Field.
“If it happens here, fine,” Sosa said of hitting No. 500. “If it happens in Chicago, great. I’m not thinking about that too much because I don’t want to get out of my plan. I want to be patient and wait for my pitch.”
Orie committed two errors on a grounder to his left in the first. They resulted in two runs, but the Pittsburgh native atoned for his fielding and throwing miscues when he doubled home Hee Seop Choi in the eighth with the tying run.
Orie scored the Cubs’ go-ahead run on Stynes’ two-out single.
But Alfonseca gave up three hits in the ninth, including Jack Wilson’s game-winning single.
“I wanted that game so bad,” Orie said. “But wins have been hard to come by.”
Cubs second baseman Bobby Hill left the game in the first inning after being taken out on Abraham Nunez’s legal slide.
Hill, who flipped over on the play, strained his neck and developed a headache. He’s day to day.
