Cubs fold in the cold
April 24, 2005
BY TONI GINNETTI Staff Reporter Advertisement
Cubs manager Dusty Baker had something to think about during another sleepless night Saturday -- who can be the team's closer instead of LaTroy Hawkins.
After another painful ninth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates when Hawkins couldn't hold a 3-2 lead, Baker all but said Hawkins' rocky tenure as the Cubs' closer is ending.
"I have to go back to the drawing board with something else,'' Baker said, the toll of a 4-3 loss on his face. "That's something you've got to do. It seems like he just hasn't been good with one-run leads. I just can't figure it out. He has his stuff. I can't figure it out right now.''
Asked what the options might be, Baker was frank.
PIRATES 4
CUBS 3
"Oh, boy, I don't know,'' he said. ''I'll think about it tonight. At this point, I'm at a loss for words.''
The dagger this time was a Jason Bay home run that just reached the right-field seats, tying the game at 3. "It was a fastball that tailed back over the plate,'' he said of the 1-0 pitch.
Hawkins walked Craig Wilson, who later scored on a two-out triple by pinch hitter Freddy Sanchez off Glendon Rusch.
"It's definitely frustrating,'' Hawkins (0-1) said. "We fought so hard, and [Greg] Maddux pitched a great game in the [cold] weather conditions. It's frustrating. You just have to go out there and right the ship.''
But that may not be Hawkins' lot now after blowing the second of four one-run save opportunities this year and the 10th in 16 one-run games in the last two seasons.
With margins of more than one run, Hawkins was 21-for-22 last season and 2-for-2 this season.
"I don't know [why],'' said Hawkins, who signed as a free agent to be a setup man. "I guess it's because I have less room for error. It is a snake-bit thing, I guess, but all you can do is try to keep your focus.''
While Hawkins was the focus at the end, the game's beginning exposed another deficiency that has plagued the team: an inability to drive in runners in scoring position -- especially from third -- with less than two outs.
It happened in the third when Maddux was at third and Jerry Hairston Jr. at second after he doubled home Neifi Perez with the game's first run. Maddux, who reached first on a fielder's choice, was held at third on the double with Corey Patterson coming up against starter Mark Redmond.
Patterson popped up to second, and Derrek Lee struck out to end the inning.
Patterson atoned in the eighth with a leadoff home run off Salomon Torres, giving the Cubs and Maddux a 3-2 lead.
Lee followed with a double but got no farther than third.
"We left runners out there again with less than two outs,'' Baker said. "Those have been coming back to haunt us. We shouldn't even be in that [one-run] situation [in the ninth]. It's killing us right now, especially when you're playing low-scoring games like this. You've got to pick those runners up somehow.''
Catcher Michael Barrett said the hitters haven't been patient.
"We have to get better pitches to hit,'' he said. ''We swing at bad ones, myself included. We know how to get out of it, and that's to relax.
"You want to give your closer as many runs as you can. One run isn't easy for anyone to pitch with. Sometimes this game can be baffling. All their hits are bloop hits, and then you see that [Bay home run].''
Maddux gave up only four hits through eight innings, but he blamed himself for allowing the Pirates two runs in the seventh that tied the game, both scoring after two outs.
"I screwed up in the seventh,'' he said. ''I didn't make very good pitches to Bobby Hill [whose double to right-center scored the tying run]. I have to be better than that and make it easy for the [pitchers] coming in after me. It was a good day to pitch and tough to score runs.
"Maybe only give up one run in the seventh instead of two changes things.''
Maddux, winless in four starts, also defended Hawkins.
"I actually think he's throwing well,'' Maddux said. ''He's so good, he's only missing by a little.
''If you miss by a lot, they foul it off. In this game, the little things mean a lot.
"In any sport, you run good and bad. That's why it's so hard to predict and why it's not as easy as it looks.
''I wouldn't be surprised if he saved his next 10 straight.''
But he might not get the chance.
Also in college baseball UF sweeps Auburn, and the Celtics win in a big fashion against the Pacers in the first game of the series. A good weekend (could have been better if the Dodgers had been able to win last night, what with bases loaded in the 9th but oh well)