That the Cubs lost to a superior team in a big series was neither surprising nor new. The way they did it was.
They became the first team this season to have 17 or more hits and score five or fewer runs in a nine-inning game.
When it comes to futility, the Cubs are the front-runners.
With their 11-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Sunday at Coors Field, the Cubs cannot win this four-game series even if they take Monday’s finale. They have won only two series against teams with current winning records, and both of those — against the Cardinals and Marlins — were in April.
The Rockies are two games ahead of the Cubs in the National League wild-card standings, the same deficit the Cubs have against the Cardinals in the NL Central.
The luckiest Cub was manager Lou Piniella, who was ejected in the second inning and claimed he “took a nap and didn’t watch the whole game” in the clubhouse.
He missed a strange game in which the Cubs outhit the Rockies 17-14 but left 13 runners on base, including seven in the first four innings.
The first five Cubs batters collected 12 hits but only three RBIs.
“We got a lot of hits and didn’t get a lot of runs,” said Derrek Lee, who had an RBI.
Cubs starter Randy Wells, who was 8-1 in his previous nine starts, lasted only 5 1/3 innings and allowed seven runs, five of them earned, in his worst major-league start. He hadn’t allowed more than four runs in 16 starts and had allowed eight hits only one other time.
“I was pretty disgusted with myself,” Wells said. “I didn’t have command of any pitches when I had to.”
Wells put the Cubs behind 3-0 in the first inning, then was involved in the second-inning play that might have turned the game around.
He was batting with runners on first and second with one out and chopped a grounder to third baseman Ian Stewart, whose throw to second appeared to pull second baseman Clint Barmes off the base. Barmes completed the double play as umpire Chris Guccione signaled an out.
If Guccione had called the runner safe, the Cubs would have had a run and a runner at second for the top of the order.
Piniella sprinted — as much as a senior citizen can sprint — out of the dugout and had a demonstrative one-way discussion with Guccione that included pulling his hat off.
“I don’t know how you can miss that [call],” said Piniella, who has been ejected twice this season. “Obviously he was wrong; we’ll leave it at that. … It was a bad call, but we had other chances.”
Did they ever, but starter Jason Hammel and three relievers kept getting key outs.
“It’s one of those plays you’ve got to be able to fight through,” said leadoff hitter Ryan Theriot, who scored twice. “One more run wouldn’t have helped [in the end].”
The offensive highlight for the Cubs again was Milton Bradley, who had his first four-hit game since 2006 and raised his average 10 points to .266.
Since moving into the second spot of the batting order Friday, Bradley is 7-for-11 with two walks, two RBIs and a sacrifice bunt.
“He’s taken to the two-hole like we were hoping,” Piniella said.
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dvandyck@tribune.com
