Lou Piniella stood in his office for the entirety of his postgame news conference after Thursday’s 6-5 loss to Texas, wondering aloud when his team was going to get on a hot streak.
“It should have started a month ago,” Piniella said, laughing. “I think we all need to go to church and put more in the [collection] box.”
Piniella’s prayers have gone unanswered thus far as his Cubs have fallen 8 1/2 games behind first-place Milwaukee in the National League Central.
On Thursday, they found another unusual way to lose — on two fly balls that went in and out of the gloves of outfielders Alfonso Soriano and Angel Pagan, sandwiched around Bob Howry botching a rundown. After the Cubs clawed back from a 5-0 deficit to tie it on Derrek Lee’s run-scoring single in the sixth, ex-Cubs outfielder Kenny Lofton found a way to spoil their afternoon.
Lofton dumped a popup into shallow left field to lead off the ninth, and Soriano appeared to have caught it before it popped out of his glove. After a sacrifice advanced Lofton, he seemingly was a dead duck off second on Brad Wilkerson’s comebacker to Howry.
But after running at Lofton, Howry’s throw to Cesar Izturis at second was too late, so there were two runners on with one out. Frank Catalanotto followed with a liner down the right-field line that went in and out of the glove of a diving Pagan.
Game over.
The Cubs have lost four of five since winning nine of 13 after Piniella’s dirt-kicking rampage June 2.
“What we need to do is get our offense going consistently,” Piniella said before the game. “And get a nice streak where we’re getting good pitching at the same time, and let it coincide.”
The Cubs got neither Thursday.
They stranded seven runners in the first three innings — wasting a bases-loaded, no-outs situation in the second — and 13 runners overall.
“We had a chance to score anywhere from five to 15 runs today,” Piniella said. “I truly believe this team is going to hit, and hit with men on base. But, boy, I’ll tell you what, I’d really like to see it.”
