Rocky Mountain low

Obviously you can't win them all. I'll take a two-game split on the road, and clearly if the Cubs win six of every seven they're going to be juuuuuust fine. But you've gotta be a little disappointed in today's game. Since managing a mere three hits off Cole Hamels and two relievers (just one off Hamels in seven innings) on April 12, the Cubs had banged out at least 8 hits in every game, and in the ten games since, seven games featured double-digit hits (all at least 12) by the Cubs. So I suppose another game like this was probably inevitable. But still. The part that I don't get is, based on his stats so far, Aaron Cook kills lefties. Yet because of all the lefty pitchers waiting in Washington, Piniella gave the lefty platoon guys a start today - and three of the Cubs' four hits off Cook came from Mike Fontenot and Felix Pie. Pie even went 2-for-3! And each had one RBI, of course the only two the Cubs got in the 4-2 loss.

Positives: You have to like Pie going 2-for-3 with an RBI, especially against a guy who notionally kills lefties. Maybe he really is getting it. In addition, Marquis didn't have a great game, but he did chew up seven innings, giving the bullpen a needed rest, and while he allowed eight hits and two walks, he only let in two runs.

Negatives: One day after being the hero, Ramirez was conspicuously absent, going o-for-4 with two Ks. But, it happens. Not a huge negative. The Cubs' non-pitching defense made an error for the first time since the 9-2 loss to the Reds on April 17, and it was a pretty crucial one; rushing to turn a double play, Theriot dropped the ball and no outs were recorded. Theriot said after the game that if he hadn't turned the double play, a run would have scored, so he was rushing; this is true, but the run scored anyway, and the Rockies were able to add a second run as a result of there still only being one out after the play. Of course, Lee, Ramirez and Fukudome couldn't do anything off Fuentes in the ninth, so maybe it didn't really matter. Final negative, however: the Cubs loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth (trailing 2-1 at the time) and were only able to push across a single tying run. Theriot lined into a double play (Fontenot was caught off first), which really is just bad luck, but man, Theriot was kind of the goat of this game, huh?

As I said, can't win 'em all. I'm not broken up about the loss or anything. But it was a pretty winnable game in spite of the offensive struggles, and a couple mistakes gave it away. You hate to lose games that way.