Cubs Seeing Double Header L’s

The Cubs played a second straight make up game on Tuesday, with the day game of the double header acting as the make up for the postponed game against the Giants back in May. Doug Davis took the mound in game one and it was not pretty. The visiting team got to Davis right away in the first inning, collecting three runs before the Cubs starter could get out of the frame. Davis started the game with the sinful lead off walk and then gave up three straight singles before avoiding an even more disastrous inning by getting Pablo Sandoval to ground into a double play that scored the second run.

The Cubs offense has been pretty good in the past week or so in coming back to erase early deficits created by their starting pitchers. The line up continued that trend in the bottom of the second when Carlos Pena launched his seventeenth home run of the season, driving in Aramis Ramirez. It also has been fun seeing both those names repeatedly in recent games as it means the middle of the order has been doing some damage. The light hitting Koyie Hill added a solo shot of his own in the inning to tie the game at three apiece.

But Davis could not hold down the Giants for even one half inning, as the visitors stormed right back a three run response of their own in the top of the third, capped off by a Pat Burrell two run homer. The Cubs left handed starter tip toed through the fourth inning despite giving up back to back singles to start the frame, but the Giants caught up to him again in the fifth. Davis loaded the bases with back to back singles and a walk before another single made it 7-3 in favor of the road team.

After striking out the pitcher for the first out, Davis was replaced by Chris Carpenter and the rookie served up a bases clearing double to ex White Sox Aaron Rowand. That closed the book on Davis and his box score line was ugly. He allowed ten earned runs on twelve hits to go with three walks in only 4 1/3 innings of work. The southpaw was on the hook for the loss and saw his record drop to 1-7. Carpenter was tagged for two runs himself in his 1 2/3 inning of work and the Giants added one last run off reliever John Grabow in the ninth inning for good measure to give them thirteen total runs just in game one alone.

The Cubs offense did respond to the Giants five run fifth with a three spot of their own. The big hit was a bases loaded two out single by Blake DeWitt that drove in two. DeWitt would strike again with a RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, but that was it for the Cubs scoring as they fell 7-13.

The night cap was not much better for the Cubs, as they sent long reliever Rodrigo Lopez to the mound for the start. He combined with Grabow to give the Giants their second five run fifth inning on the day and the visiting team never looked back. The long day for the pitching staff was no aided by the fact that both starting pitchers failed to go deep into the ballgame. The only highlights on the pitching side in game two was a solid outing by Jeff Samardzija, who struck out three in his two scoreless innings of work, and the solid return performance of Marcos Mateo, who was just called up to replace DJ LeMahieu to provide an extra arm for the long day. Mateo also went two scoreless innings with two strikeouts while only allowing one hit.

After a high scoring first game, the Cubs offense only managed five hits off Barry Zito and his bullpen mates. Lou Montanez hit his first homer as a Cub in the bottom of the third, a two run shot, and Ramirez his hot hitting with his ninth homer of 2011, fittingly in the bottom of the ninth.

Sweeping a double header is fairly hard to do and it was a shame that the Cubs allowed themselves to fall victim to one. The long day gave the Cubs 18 losses for the month of June now and can match Sammy Sosa’s record setting 20 homers in the month of June with 20 losses in the month of June if they get swept by the Giants in the remaining two games of the series.