PHILADELPHIA The Cubs are trying to keep Montreal withinshooting distance, but it is two ex-Expos who are firing the biggestblanks.
Scott Sanderson and Andre Dawson continued their slumpsWednesday night as Philadelphia's Ken Howell pitched his first bigleague shutout and complete game in a 6-0 victory.
The loss put the Cubs three games behind the Expos and cloudedthe future of Sanderson, who allowed five runs in only 3 1/3 innings.In his previous start, Sanderson allowed five runs in 2 1/3 innings.
"I ain't satisfied with Sanderson and (Paul) Kilgus. Two tofour innings ain't going to cut it," Zimmer said. "It's killing us.
"I've got to do something about it and I'm going to. I justdon't know what it will be yet.
"I might come up with a four-man rotation. We can't stay in therace going this way. I'm not going to sit back. I'm going to dosomething about it very shortly. I'm not going to watch us go downthe drain when we still have a chance."
Kilgus will make his scheduled start Sunday, but Sanderson couldbe shuttled back to the bullpen.
Sanderson didn't seem overly surprised at the news.
"He's the manager," Sanderson said. "I've had two bad games in arow, I'll agree with that.
"But before that, I thought I threw a good game against theGiants (seven innings, two runs)."
Wednesday's news was made worse by the continued problems ofright fielder Dawson, who was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Dawsonhas not had a hit in his last 22 at-bats and is hitting only .125(5-for-40) since he sat out with a sore knee on the West Coast.
Dawson keeps playing despite the slump. He had thesecond-lowest batting average (not counting the pitcher) inWednesday's Cub lineup.
"He's a very key man in our lineup," Zimmer said. "The only timeI want to take him out is to give him a day off because of his legs.
"But it would be nice if he got in one of his little (hot)streaks. I'm sure that's what he's trying to do."
"I feel good physically most of it's probably mental," Dawsonsaid. "It seems the more I try to bear down, the worse it gets. Itseems borderline calls go against you and then you start swinging atborderline pitches."
Always a streak hitter, Dawson isn't used to one a slump thisdeep.
"I've had similar ones. I can't explain it," he said. "I cansee not hitting home runs, but not getting hits at all. Somewherealong the line you've got to get a lucky one."
The slump is beginning to get to Dawson, who twice in thisseries has thrown his bat after making an out. On Wednesday, he madea waving hand motion at first base umpire Greg Bonin after Boninruled he swung at a third strike.
"I've missed some borderline pitches and I flipped my bat indisgust," he said. "If you're going bad, you miss pitches. Whenyou're going good, you hit it out of the ballpark.
"It's a fine line between between hitting them out and not,"Dawson said. "Somewhere along the line I'm going to come out of it.I'm just glad we're staying close (to Montreal)."
But Montreal seems to be on a pace of its own.
And the Cubs are struggling to keep up. They certainlystruggled against Howell Wednesday, getting only three singles.
Howell is 6-2 against the Cubs in his career, but 21-34 againsteveryone else.
"The whole night belonged to Howell. He overmatched us," Zimmersaid. "He just had us eating out of his hand. We might have stayeduntil midnight to get a run the way he pitched."
Sanderson (9-7) found deep trouble after retiring the firstseven Phillies. Five of the last eight batters he faced reachedbase.
It started in the third inning on bases-empty homers by DickieThon and Lenny Dykstra.
In the fourth, Charlie Hayes doubled home two runners beforeCalvin Schiraldi was summoned. He allowed Sanderson's fifth run andone of his own on Thon's homer, his first two-homer night since 1983.
It left Zimmer simmering.
"I'm going to ask myself a lot of questions in the next day ortwo," he said. "And I'm going to come up with some answers." Box score, Page 107.
No comments:
Post a Comment