A listless offense combined with poor defense and mediocre pitching spelled doom for the Cubs on Tuesday, as they dropped their second in a row to the Houston Astros at Wrigley in what may have been the dullest game in team history, and that’s saying a lot.
“I was absolutely bored to tears,” said Cub fans Glenn Steinberg, after attending his first game of the season. “No home runs, no extra base hits, no stolen bases, and just a few marginally hot girls in the stands. What a waste of a fine Tuesday afternoon.”
Like the previous day’s game, the Astros jumped to a 3-0 lead, forcing the Cubs to play catch-up something at which they’ve never been good. The Cubs offense was handed its lunch by the triumvirate of Chris Sampson, Rick White and Chad Qualls. The not-exactly-Hall of Famers, shut the Cubs out for the first eight innings. A feeble “Cubs rally” in the ninth proved too little too late, as they scratched across two runs before Michael Barrett and Mark DeRosa stranded the tying runners on base. The 4-2 loss dropped the Cubs to 3-5 on the season and 0-2 at the Friendly Confines.
Cesar Izturis, who got some fielding tips from Alfonso Soriano prior to the game, picked up a hat-trick of errors, drawing the ire of the Wrigley boo birds.
“Alfonso advised me to relax, look the ball into my glove and make solids throws across the diamond,” said Izturis, who somehow won a Gold Glove in 2004. “Why I’m taking pointers from a guy who twice made 23 errors in a season as a second baseman, I’m not sure. But I guess it’s better than taking hitting advice from him this season.”
Numbers of the Game:
.200 – Current batting average of Alfonso Soriano, who signed a $136 million free agent contract with the Cubs this off-season.
0 – RBI by Soriano, who is owed $136 million by the Cubs over the next eight seasons.
0 – Home runs by the slugging Soriano, who is laughing all the way to the bank with the $136 million he is stealing from the Cubs over the better part of the next decade.
