Three times a charm? Will the Cubs never find out?
For the eighth time this season, and second this homestand, they were denied three straight victories – a season-high three straight victories.
Yes, it is hard to believe, but that’s just part of this strange Cub season that took another downer with Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Yankees, even though the Cubs out-homered the supposed Bronx Bombers 2-0 and had the tying run on first base with no outs in the ninth inning.
“This is another good ballgame,” manager Mike Quade said. “We gave ourselves a chance despite (pitchers throwing) a lot of pitches. Even with four hits, we were still in this thing.”
But the truly amazing part is what Cub pitchers have done to the Yankees – with a little help from a friendly wind blowing in.
Consider that the Yankees’ second and third hitters – Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira – have combined for 42 homers, which is 40 more than the Cubs second and third hitters – Starlin Castro and Blake DeWitt. And one more than the entire Cub lineup Saturday.
“That’s a good sign for our pitching, holding that offense down,” Quade said.
But the Yankees offense still scored enough to beat the Cubs offense, which scored all of its runs on Carlos Pena’s two-run game-tying homer in the fifth and Reed Johnson’s home run in the ninth.
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The loser was Ryan Dempster, who, if you believe reports out of New York, is near the top of the Yankees’ wish list before trading deadline. Dempster’s “audition” didn’t go all that well as he left after 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs with eight hits, six walks and a season-high 119 pitches.
“I made it harder on myself than I had to,” Dempster (5-6) said. “But we had a chance to win in the end and that’s all you can ask for.”
The Cubs didn’t have many chances to score more, although DeWitt and Geovany Soto hit into double plays in the fifth and sixth innings.
Soto’s was on a sinking liner to left field that Brett Gardner caught and then threw home to catch Pena trying to score.
“I’d rather be aggressive,” Pena said.
“I believe there’s very little room for second-guessing,” Quade said.
The Cubs went hitless from the fifth through the eighth innings and then pulled within a run on Johnson’s homer off Mariano Rivera. After Alfonso Soriano singled, Soto hit into another double play, this one on the ground, and Jeff Baker struck out.
A second straight season-high crowd, 42,236, wasn’t quite split on the final decision, but Yankee fans certainly made their presence felt on another gorgeous afternoon.
“We played hard,” the always upbeat Dempster said. “There’s nothing to hang our heads about. That’s a good team over there.
“We played hard and we played aggressive and we’re going to keep doing that.”
The trouble now is Sunday’s series finale is against CC Sabathia, the fourth Cy Young winner the Cubs will have faced in 10 games. They lost to the Phillies’ Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee but beat the Brewers’ Zack Greinke – which started their previous two-game winning streak.
Twitter @davandyck