Can't Buy a Thrill

I told you how much I appreciate low-scoring games. In a low-scoring game, one play here or there, maybe even one pitch out of 300+ between two teams, is the difference between winning and losing.

On two plays in the 11th inning tonight, the fundamentals fell short and it cost the Cubs the game.

I'm not a fan of Jacque Jones yet; I think the Cubs essentially paid more money for a less talented version of Corey Patterson (who has 12 hits in his last seven starts and has raised his average to .277 with seven steals for Baltimore). While Jones came through with two of the Cubs' four hits, he had a chance to double up Khalil Greene from first base on a sinking liner by Adrian Gonzalez in the 11th, but he took three steps and threw off the wrong foot, three-hopping an off-line throw on a play that was right in front of him. Greene ambled back safely as Todd Walker moved off the bag to take the throw.

After getting a second life, Greene proceeded to take off for second. He got a huge jump, but while a swift throw from Michael Barrett would have made it a close play, Neifi Perez was out of position to make a tag and Greene slid in behind him. One pitch later, the ballgame was over and the D-Backs won 1-0.

If either play nabs Greene, Josh Barfield's first career game-winning hit turns into a regular old single, assuming he comes through with two outs and the bases empty instead of one out and a runner on second. It's all in the details.

The great shame of it all, apart from a tough loss, is that Carlos Zambrano was outstanding again. Obviously throwing shutout ball, Big Z scattered four hits and three walks over seven innings while striking out ten. Leading the majors in strikeouts is probably little consolation for seven winless starts.

When Zambrano, Scott Eyre, Bobby Howry and Scott Williamson combine to allow four hits and no runs over ten innings and you still can't get the win, either you're facing tough pitching, you're just not hitting, or both. Tonight it was both. Chan Ho Park took a no-hitter into the fifth and threw nine innings of two-hit ball, and pinch-hitter John Mabry was the only Cub to so much as draw a walk with a runner on base. No Cub reached third base.

The Freddie Bynum experiment isn't panning out either. Bynum was 0-for-5 batting second, making two errors in left field and grounding into a 4-6-3 first-inning double play after Juan Pierre walked to open the game. Outfielder Buck Coats is currently batting .341 down at Iowa.

I agree you need to make some changes when you go through a week losing five of six, getting outscored 45-5 without a home run and getting shut out three times. But youth movement leaders Matt Murton and Ronny Cedeno were each given the night off instead of still-cold Aramis Ramirez, and the night ended with four of the eight starters at .214 or less, a fourth shutout and a season-high four-game losing streak.

And as long as changes are being made, Cub fan favorite Augie Ojeda has scored ten runs in only 50 at-bats at Iowa with an OBP of .417, more than double fellow switch-hitter Neifi Perez' .208. I don't care if Neifi did win a Gold Glove six years ago, no major league team can afford to have a .174 hitter in its top eight in at-bats this far into the season.

With Cub bats desperately floundering and no big singular threat as Ramirez struggles to reach mid-season form, the Cubs are reportedly looking to Baltimore to fill the void left by Derrek Lee with one of two more former members of the Florida Marlins, Kevin Millar and Jeff Conine. Neither is off to a hot start, but either could move to the outfield when Lee returns, and Conine, the better hitter of the two, could spell Ramirez at third.

It would only make sense to deal with the Orioles, as the Cubs have trended toward former Marlins and the O's trend toward Cub castoffs (Patterson, Sammy Sosa and LaTroy Hawkins in the past two years). Baltimore is without a veteran utility infielder, and Perez or a return of Jerry Hairston Jr. would fill that bill.

In the meantime, the Cubs look to rookie Sean Marshall to snap the skid against Jake Peavy in game two of the four-game set Saturday night. But as impressive as Marshall and many Cub pitchers have been early on, somebody's going to have to light a fire under this team post haste or it won't make any difference if everybody comes back on schedule.