Abbatacola : Cubs Lose In Rain Shortened Game
by Matt Abbatacola
(Chicago) With the rain falling and the Mets leading 7-4 in the top of the 7th with two outs and two on, Crew Chief, Dale Scott, called for the tarp. Mike Quade ran out of the dugout to share his opinion on that decision.
"I had my forecast and Dale had his forecast," said Quade "we went after it two different ways."
The conversation ended as the umpiring crew walked away from Quade who was still sharing his thoughts.
Casey Coleman entered tonight's game on a positive note. In his last start on 5/19 at Florida, he went 5 2/3 IP and gave up no runs. He earned his second victory on the season.
He left the game with his shortest outing of the year and his worst start since being added to the injury-filled rotation. The Mets scored six runs on seven hits in just 1 1/3 IP.
Coleman said, "tonight, I was up in the zone and they just hit it."
Quade agreed saying, "he got the ball up - just didn't make pitches."
The Mets scored in the first inning on a Daniel Murphy single that plated Carlos Beltran who reached base on a 2 out walk. New York did their damage against Coleman in the second inning after the Cubs scored 4 runs in their half of the first behind back-to-back 2 run doubles by Reed Johnson and Alfonso Soriano. In the second, the Mets sent 11 batters to the plate and scored 5 runs on 5 hits.
The game one rout of the Mets was the 7th time this season that the Cubs had scored at least 8 runs. They are 0-7 after tonight's loss in the game following.
The Cubs have scored 5 runs or more in an inning nine times - that's tops in the majors.
Starlin Castro has hit in each of his last seven home games, dating to May 10th. He is hitting .571 with six runsm two doubles, two triples, and eight RBI in that span.
Tomorrow's finale will feature Carlos Zambrano and knuckleballer, R.A. Dickey, with a 1:20 first pitch.
