Manager Lou Piniella said before Sunday’s series finale against the Braves that the Cubs badly needed to get some innings out of starting pitcher Ted Lilly, considering Saturday’s starter, Jason Marquis, didn’t get out of the second inning.
The Cubs got 10 pitches out of Lilly before he was ejected for hitting Edgar Renteria with a pitch.
Still, they transformed an 0-2 deficit into a 4-2 lead, and the bullpen pretty much held the fort until the eighth inning, when Ryan Dempster surrendered three runs and the Braves rallied for a 5-4 victory, scoring the winning run on a wild pitch and salvaging a split of the four-game series.
With the bullpen depleted by two nights of heavy duty, Dempster came on in the eighth to attempt a two-inning save. He immediately gave up back-to-back doubles to Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Scott Thorman to make it a 4-3 game. Willie Harris had a pinch-single, and after he stole second, Dempster intentionally walked Kelly Johnson to load the bases with no outs.
Yunel Escobar hit into a 6-4-3 double play, Thorman scoring to tie the game at 4-4. After another intentional walk to pinch-hitter Brian McCann, Dempster uncorked a wild pitch on ball four to Andruw Jones, and Harris scooted home with the winning run.
Bob Wickman, making career appearance 801, closed it out for the Braves with a 1-2-3 ninth.
After winning four of the first five on their seven-game trip, the Cubs finished it 4-3.
If there was going to be any payback for Alfonso Soriano getting hit with the first pitch of the game Saturday, it would have to be at some point Sunday, as it marked the final meeting of the season between the two teams.
Lilly struck out the first two batters he faced, getting Escobar looking for the second out. He went to 2-0 on Renteria, then pitched him up and in, hitting him in the left arm and hand.
Home plate umpire Jim Wolf immediately warned both teams as Renteria started walking toward the mound, his path blocked by Cubs catcher Michael Barrett.
As both benches cleared, players mingled and Renteria moved toward first, Wolf ejected Lilly.
“The umpire felt our pitcher throwing at the hitter intentionally,” Piniella said in an in-game interview with ESPN. “Our guy contends he was just trying to pitch inside, like [Tim] Hudson was [Saturday].”
Hudson said after Saturday’s game that he was trying to move Soriano off the plate. After Hudson hit Soriano, plate umpire Tim Tschida warned both benches but did not eject Hudson, nor did he eject Braves pitcher Peter Moylan when he hit Cubs pitcher Sean Gallagher in the fourth inning.
Adding to the controversy, Renteria immediately stole second after Carlos Marmol replaced Lilly, and he appeared to give Cubs second baseman Mike Fontenot a forearm shiver to the face on the tag play at second.
Renteria left the game in the fourth inning with a contusion on his left hand.
Fontenot would get even with his bat, starting a two-run rally in the fifth with an RBI triple and scoring on a sacrifice fly. He then drilled his first career home run to lead off the seventh, giving the Cubs a two-run lead.
The Braves had taken the lead with two runs in the third off Marmol. Kelly Johnson led off the inning with a solo home run, and Escobar and Renteria followed with singles. After Andruw Jones flied out to right, Jeff Francoeur singled home Escobar.
Meanwhile, Buddy Carlyle, an emergency starter for John Smoltz, baffled the Cubs through the first four innings.
———-
rfoltman@tribune.com
