Cubs Manager Lou Piniella, stretched and strained by home and professional obligations throughout a three-game sweep at the hands of his former Tampa Bay Rays team in St. Petersburg, left Florida glad to be heading back to Wrigley but clearly in no mood for the standard media circus of carousel, regurgitation of issues that have already been addressed for days on the road.
“Horrible inning, wasnt it? he said of the bullpens seventh-inning collapse Thursday, including setup ace Carlos Marmols two-walk, two-hit-batter sequence to start a seven-run Rays inning.
“Its only one loss. First time weve lost three in a row. Now we go home and try to regroup, thats all we can do, Piniella said. “But I found some things out in this series that I think will pay some dividends down the road, and well leave it at that.
Was he referring to Scott Eyres grand slam allowed to Carl Crawford in a left-vs.-left matchup that amounted to the first pressure situation he used Eyre in this season? Or Marmols continued command issues over the past two weeks?
Who knows?
But he added, “Weve had trouble scoring runs this whole road trip. And I dont want to hear any more when I get back to Chicago, and when we get [Alfonso] Soriano back, about leadoff or anything else. I really dont. Im not going to put up with it anymore. I think we know what were doing here.
“Its just been a struggle. Weve got to piece it together, and weve got to keep our heads up, and keep going. And we havent been in a bad spell all year. Well, were in one right now. And, hopefully, at home itll cure it, and we go forward.
