Bucs snap losing skid, continue Cubs mastery
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH
The Pirates can’t seem to beat any opponent regularly except one. The Chicago Cubs, a team with a payroll that’s more than three times larger than Pittsburgh’s, is getting very tired of being the exception.
Tired enough, it appears, to start making some changes.
Pinch-hitter Bobby Crosby singled in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, Garrett Jones homered and the Pirates ended a five-game losing streak by beating the Cubs 2-1 on Monday.
The Pirates were coming off a 1-6 road trip and had lost nine of 11, only to beat the Cubs for the eighth time in nine meetings dating to the final week of last season. The Pirates were 6-1 in May against the Cubs but were 5-17 against the rest of the NL.
Baffling? The Cubs think so.
“I don’t know what’s going on. We’ve just got to figure out what we can do to try to start hitting better and win some games,” Alfonso Soriano said.
For now, manager Lou Piniella plans to give a slumping Derrek Lee the day off Tuesday, the same tactic that didn’t work Monday with Ryan Theriot. Theriot, who entered during a double switch in the eighth, struck out to end the game and is in a 5 for 36 slump.
He’s not the only Cubs hitter who isn’t hitting. Lee is 1 for 14, Marlon Byrd is 7 for 46 and Aramis Ramirez is batting .162, the majors’ second-lowest average for an everyday player.
“I don’t know, I really don’t know,” manager Lou Piniella said. “I’ll be honest, I wish I had some answers. You would think that sooner or later this offense would wake up and start scoring a sufficient number of runs to win baseball games.”
For most of the season, the Pirates — who were a season-low 11 games below .500 before winning — have felt the same way. They won despite scoring three runs or fewer for the 11th time in 12 games.
Jones’ ninth homer of the season tied it at 1 in the sixth, and he doubled leading off the eighth against reliever Sean Marshall (5-2). After Lastings Milledge grounded out and Ryan Doumit was intentionally walked, Crosby lined a 3-2 pitch by Marshall into center field to score Jones.
“We need to start swinging the bats a little better,” Crosby said. “Hopefully, we can start turning things around. If they [the pitching staff] can keep us in games, our bats will come around.”
Evan Meek (3-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the victory, and Octavio Dotel finished up for his 11th save in 13 opportunities.