There’s an old saying in baseball: “every team will win 50 games and lose 50 games. What matters is what you do in those other 62 games.” Loss #51 came the way so many others have this year – some shaky defense and not enough offense.
The Cubs score three times and one of them was aided by a passed ball from Ryan Doumit that put a runner on third in the second. Starlin Castro lofted a sac fly that scored Koyie Hill. Jeff Karstens surrendered a pair of solo jacks to Alfonso Soriano. Other than that, he was good over his six innings. He allowed three runs (two earned) and seven hits. He struck out two and walked one.
The Pirates could get nothing going against Ted Lilly. They managed just six hits off of the Cubs hurler in seven innings. One of those was a solo homer from Doumit to account for the Bucs only run. Lilly struck out five and walked just one. Carlos Marmol whiffed two of the three hitters he faced in the 9th to get the save.
The Good
Doumit had two hits and Garrett Jones had two singles.
The Bad
The losing.
The offense. Or lack of.
The Rest
Lilly was 0-2 in 2010 against Pittsburgh. He moves his career mark to 5-4 against the Pirates with the win.
Karstens is now 2-2 against the Wriglies.
Bucs came into the game last in the NL in runs and hits. They did nothing to reverse that trend tonight, adding just one run and seven knocks.
Jones had been hitless in three straight games for the first time in June until his two hit night. He is hitting .322 on the month.
Doumit’s homer ended a 17 game homerless streak.
