1. Chris Duffy, .230
2. Freddy Sanchez, .240
3. Jason Bay, .266
4. Ryan Doumit, .425
5. Xavier Nady, .265
6. Adam LaRoche, .164
7. Jose Bautista, .265
8. Don Kelly, .167
9. Tom Gorzelanny, .000
Then when I reveal that the Pirates totalled three hits in a 1-0 loss to the Cubs, you'll already have a logical explanation. Seriously, look at that lineup. What kind of outcome did you expect?
Yes, another spectacular pitching performance was wasted, this one by Gorzelanny, who surrendered just one run over seven innings. After Alfonso Soriano's leadoff home run in the 1st, the Cubs' bats were as useless as the Pirates'.
Jason Marquis, a pitcher with a career ERA of 4.41 in seven seasons and an ERA of 6.02 last season, held your Battlin' Bucs to just three hits. This was not Johan Santana, this was not Nolan Ryan, this wasn't even Dice-K. This was Jason Marquis. The Pirates couldn't even draw a walk off of this guy.
A few years ago, when I heard that Dave Littlefield was building the team around pitching, I proclaimed, "Great, now we can lose games 1-0 instead of 5-0". I can only hope that Littlefield is running up a big phone bill trying to turn some of his surplus pitching into players that can actually hit a baseball. Because it's apparent that hitting a baseball is too much to ask of this motley crew.
The Cubs series wraps up on Thursday afternoon with a 2:20 game in the Windy City. The pitching matchup will be Paul Maholm against Carlos Zambrano, who, despite his current 5.80 ERA, is regarded as the Cubs' staff ace. Translation: don't expect the offensive drought to end anytime soon.
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