Cubs finding new ways to lose 11th consecutive game

The Cubs lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2 tonight, which is their 11th loss in a row.

Paul Maholm made the start for the Cubs and allowed two runs on four hits and walked five and struck out two batters.  He lasted five innings and threw 94 pitches.

Casey Coleman and Shawn Camp pitched in relief of Maholm and threw a combined three scoreless innings.  However, Rafael Dolis came into a 2-2 tied game in the ninth and loaded the bases and then proceeded to hit Matt Hague with a pitch, which allowed the Pirates to score the winning run.  Are you kidding me?  What a letdown.  I'm pretty sure tonight's way of losing isn't what Theo Epstein was thinking when he was talking about the "Cubs Way."  Don't get me wrong, I love the Cubs, but tonight's loss was an especially hard one to take.

Former Pirates pitcher Paul Maholm returned to Pittsburgh for the first time since joining the Cubs during the offseason (photo from cubs.com)

The Cubs have now lost 11 games in a row.  "You're always surprised when you lose 10 games in a row," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said.  "That's hard to do, really, especially when you're getting pretty good starting pitching, for the most part.  You're losing one-run ballgames and you're getting shutout three, four five times in a 10-game span, that's almost fluky type numbers - what we're going through right now.  So you don't expect those kind of numbers on a consistent basis through 10 games."

Sveum said he hasn't held a team meeting since they could be negative meetings and he would rather have individualized meetings.  In general, Sveum said meetings are usually called due to lack of effort, but he feels that it's not the case with this team.

The Cubs eentered today's game against the Pirates 0-for-25 with runners in scoring position over the last three games, including 0-for-12 on Friday.

In Cubs' minor league news, Blake DeWitt, was placed on the disabled list with a sprained left wrist which he injured while diving for the ball in the outfield.  DeWitt has played in four games for Triple-A Iowa since he was designated for assignment by the Cubs.

Left-handed pitcher Jeff Beliveau, who has pitched in 16 games in relief for Iowa, was also placed on the disabled list with a strained shoulder.

The Cubs signed free agent infielder Diory Hernandez, 28, to Triple-A Iowa, who was hitting .159 for Triple-A Oklahoma City and released on May 23.


Tomorrow the Cubs and Pirates will play the final game of the series at 12:35pm CT.  Matt Garza will start for the Cubs and try for his third win of the season.  He currently is 2-2 with a 3.72 ERA.