The 20- or 25-pitch inning. Through the years, baseball managers have blamed it for shaky pitching, sloppy fielding, losing streaks and just about everything else except fallen arches.
The long, dreary inning with pitch after pitch missing the strike zone sure played havoc with the Cubs in Wrigley Field on Wednesday.
Starter-loser Steve Trachsel and five Cubs relievers combined to throw 188 pitches, an average of almost 21 per inning, in an 11-2 pounding they absorbed from the Houston Astros.
“That’s a lot of pitches,” said Cubs catcher Rick Wilkins. “The defense tends to get back on its heels in a long inning. But we were very poor. And Houston did things right. They hit the strikes and took the balls.”
Home runs by Luis Gonzalez and Craig Biggio, rather than long innings, caused Trachsel’s undoing. In his 4 1/3 innings he threw 81 pitches, an acceptable average of 17.3 per inning.
But Gonzalez had enough power to transform Trachsel’s 3-and-1 pinch into an opposite-field homer and a 1-0 lead in the third. And Biggio turned Trachsel’s high curve into a three-run homer and a game-clinching 4-0 lead in the fifth.
Then manager Jim Riggleman called successively upon relievers Chris Nabholz, Tom Edens, Mike Walker, Tanyon Sturtze and Randy Myers. And the pitch count really soared.
The five relievers required 101 pitches to struggle through the last 4 1/3 innings, an average of 23.3 pitches per inning. And 51 of the 101 were called balls by Frank Pulli, working at home plate in his crew’s first game back from the umpires’ lockout.
Infield errors by Shawon Dunston at short and Steve Buechele at third made four runs unearned as the Astros zipped to an 11-0 lead.
“I told them to try to cut down on their errors,” Riggleman said after the Cubs lost their third straight game. “No great message, but I told them that errors are going to catch up to you. I think we’re a very good defensive club, but we haven’t showed it.”
Wednesday’s two errors raised the Cubs’ total to 11 in seven games. The club’s records are 4-3 overall and 2-3 at Wrigley.
Riggleman wouldn’t blame the high pitch count alone for Wednesday’s errors or for the rout.
“Generally there is a correlation between long innings and errors,” said Riggleman. “But I don’t want to use it as an excuse. Besides, we were making errors when the innings weren’t so long.”
He pointed out that Wednesday’s game was not typical because his staff has not made a habit of toiling through innings of 20 or more pitches.
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“Overall, our guys have been throwing strikes,” said Riggleman. “I’m going to keep bringing these middle relievers into the fire. The opportunity is there for them.”
A total of 27,694 tickets were sold for the last game on the home schedule that offered tickets for half price. About half the ticket-holders were no-shows.