NEW YORK — The last time the Cubs were in New York, in mid-April 2010, manager Lou Piniella made the shocking announcement Carlos Zambrano was headed for the bullpen, a move general manager Jim Hendry fully endorsed.
It was a time of change in the Cubs organization, which was hoping to plug a hole in the bullpen partially caused by the loss of Kerry Wood to free agency.
But a lot has happened over the last 17 months.
Piniella, Zambrano and Hendry are gone, and Wood has returned in the role Zambrano disliked.
Zambrano remains Cubs property until the club finds a way to shed his contract this offseason.
The Cubs returned to New York on Friday with Zambrano’s replacement, Casey Coleman, searching for his first victory since rejoining the rotation.
But in a game that had a little bit of everything, the Cubs lost 5-4 on Justin Turner’s two-out, RBI double off Sean Marshall in the ninth inning.
Manager Mike Quade ordered an intentional walk to Jose Reyes with a runner on second before Turner lofted a fly ball over the head of center fielder Marlon Byrd. The ball bounced over the wall, making it a ground-rule double that scored the winner.
“It’s one of those things,” Quade said, “Marsh has been good. We were playing shallow to have a shot at the guy at home. It was just one of those things.”
Coleman frittered away an early three-run lead and left trailing 4-3 after five innings. But the Cubs bounced back in the ninth with two outs and pinch-runner Lou Montanez on first. Starlin Castro dumped a single into left field and Darwin Barney celebrated the birth of his daughter with a run-scoring single up the middle to tie the game 4-4.
Until the ninth-inning comeback, the biggest bright spot of the night was the appearance of Andrew Cashner, who pitched a scoreless sixth inning of relief in his first outing since injuring his rotator cuff April 6 during a start at Wrigley Field. Cashner’s velocity was in the upper-90s, which bodes well for his comeback.
“It was there in the minors,” he said. “I try not to look at that too much. Just try to execute my pitches one at a time. Overall, I was happy with the way it went.”
Carlos Pena hit a two-run homer off Mike Pelfrey in the third to put the Cubs on top, and they added another run in the fourth on Bryan LaHair’s RBI triple.
Replays showed LaHair was probably out at third, but the umpires made up for it by calling LaHair out at home when he appeared to be safe while trying to score on a flyout to right.
It was that kind of a night.
“The baseball gods giveth,” Quade said, “and the baseball gods taketh away.”
Twitter @PWSullivan
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