Someone who paid good money to watch Thursday’s mess,commented to me that “It was horrible!” as I was heading to the Clubhouses after the Arizona Diamondbacks blew away the Cubs 13-5. My only response was “No, horrible is allot more fun!”. After three innings in which Ted Lilly was strong in this his second start of the season, things fell apart. The D-Backs had two big innings,including a five-run top of the fourth against Lilly(1-1)and it got much worse later. The Cubs took a very short lived 1-0 lead on Ian Kennedy in the bottom of the third when Mike Fontenot was hit by a pitch,and one out later was bunted to third by Lilly.Ryan Theriot singled up the middle to score his good pal. Then,after Lilly has cruised through the first three frames, the trouble started with lead off walks to Justin Upton and Mark Reynolds-which on a day in which the wind was whipping out over 30 MPH, it was not a good idea. Adam LaRoche,who’s Dad Dave pitched out the Cub bullpen in 1974, drilled a three run homer to left-center. Cole Gillespie doubled to left an out later and he trotted home when eighth place batter Chris Snyder deposited one well into the LF Bleachers. La Roche got to Lilly for another homer-this time a solo shot in the 5th. Kennedy(1-1)proceeded to shut the Cubs down over the next four innings.By the 7th inning,Lilly was already gone and the D-Backs scored a ‘touchdown and extra point’ against Jeff Gray(2 runs)and James Russell(5 big ones,but just one was earned). LaRoche doubled in a run,giving him five for the day. After an error on Aramis Ramirez, Gillespie and Snyder each singled in a run, Kennedy lifted a sac fly to Kosuke Fukudome in RF, and lead off batter Kelly Johnson capped the onslaught with a three run homer to right field, his 9th. The Cubs chased in the bottom of the 8th when they loaded the bases and Fukudome ripped a meaningless grand slam to LF and the scoring was done for the day.
NOTES—The Cubs have dropped three in a row after they had won four straight through Monday…..Theriot extended his hitting streak to nine games…..The slam for Fukudome was his first in the Majors and the Cubs 292nd in team history…..The Cubs will send Randy Wells(2-0)against Arizona’s Rodrigo Lopez(1-0)Friday afternoon at 1:20pm…..Attendance was 36,850, but no more than 10,000 were still in the stands by the ninth inning.
LES