The honeymoon is over. Or, at least, it`s winding down.
After watching his Cubs get shut out for the second night in a row and the third time in four games, Cub manager Jim Lefebvre did his best to pretend everything was fine:
Just a few bad breaks. A little luck here and there and the Cubs could have won Tuesday night`s game 10-0 instead of losing it 1-0. Atlanta`s Charlie Leibrandt pitched a fantastic game. You gotta give it to the Braves. They did what they had to do to win. We`ll get `em next time.
On and on. The usual stuff. Politically correct baseball gibberish.
Then, suddenly, Lefebvre`s jaw clenched. He never raised his voice, but the anger and frustration welled in his throat and the sentences came quicker and quicker, each more emphatic and ominous than the last.
”We might make some changes around here if necessary,” Lefebvre said, pointedly making eye contact with several reporters gathered around his desk in the visitor`s clubhouse.
”If that`s what you have to do, that`s what you have to do.”
A long silence.
”You make out of that what you want to.”
Another long silence.
”I`m starting to see some things I don`t like. You could see some changes. That`s all I`m saying.”
There wasn`t much else he could say. His players have said it all for him on the field. They are 7-12, last in the National League East. They have lost five of their last six, six of their last eight and seven out of nine on the road.
Losing is becoming a way of life for the Cubs, and Lefebvre isn`t the only one starting to sense it.
”We`re at the point where you`re at least aware of the bad luck we`ve been having, and you start to wonder if it`s going to be like last year,”
said Frank Castillo, who did all he could to turn things around Tuesday.
Castillo pitched no-hit ball for five innings and allowed one unearned run in 6 1/3 innings. But he was charged with the loss, his second in as many decisions.
Paul Assenmacher threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh, allowing pinch-runner Otis Nixon to score.
On any other night, all anyone on both teams would be talking about was what a wonderful pitchers` duel it was. The Cubs only got three hits-one at the beginning and two at the end of the game. In between, they were dead.
The Braves only got three hits, too, but one of theirs came before the wild pitch, setting up the win.
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Leibrandt (2-1) gave up a leadoff single to Shawon Dunston, who was throw out at second on a botched hit-and-run play. After that, he retired the next 20 Cubs before leaving for a pinch-hitter.
Marvin Freeman kept the string going by retiring the next five Cubs, but Dwight Smith stopped the string and salvaged some pride for Lefebvre`s club with a two-out pinch single in the ninth. That hit tied him for ninth place on the all-time list of Cub pinch-hitters with 29.
Dunston kept the rally alive and raised his team-high batting average to .333 with another single to put the tying run in scoring position, but Alejandro Pena came in to retire Sammy Sosa and earn his third save of the year.
With their three-hit performance, the Cubs watched their team batting average drop to .213, worst in the National League. That bothers Lefebvre. But what bothers him more is that the Cubs haven`t been making the most of what few opportunities they`ve had.
”The Pirates weren`t hitting earlier this year, but they were still winning,” Lefebvre said. ”We could have had four more victories that I can think of off the top of my head right now without having one more hit.
”We`re just not moving the runners up and doing what it takes to scratch out runs. Too many people around here are sitting back waiting for the old Chicago Cub way of doing things-to score a bunch of runs with big hits. We`ve got to change that.”
And how do you change that?
”There just might be some changes around here,” Lefebvre said. ”Let`s wait and see.”
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Next: At Atlanta, Wednesday 11:40 a.m., WGN-Ch. 9