In which Mark DeRosa is a little too dazzled by Derek Turnbow’s hot start to the season. From the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Sullivan.
Manager Lou Piniella was speechless Monday night after the Cubs blew a four-run lead in a 5-4, 12-inning loss to Milwaukee at Wrigley Field.
Piniella blew off his postgame interview session after Cubs hitting coach Gerald Perry got into a loud and profane shouting match with the umpires in the tunnel leading to the Cubs’ clubhouse.
A Cubs spokesman said Piniella decided to “take a pass” on meeting with reporters. Perry was also not made available to answer questions about his exchange, the second such incident between the Cubs and umpires in the last four days.
Friday it was Piniella who was involved in the postgame shouting match.
Crew chief Brian Gorman also declined to comment when asked to discuss the incident with a pool reporter. Gorman told an umpiring spokesman that the incident would be written up and sent to the Major League Baseball office in New York.
The Cubs were unhappy about Derrick Turnbow’s game-ending strikeout of Mark DeRosa with the tying run on base, after Prince Fielder’s solo home run off rookie Rocky Cherry had given Milwaukee the lead in the top of the 12th (above). DeRosa blamed plate umpire Paul Nauert for a faulty strike zone.
“If you look at the replay, the pitch is a ball,” DeRosa said. “Derrick Turnbow is nasty enough. He doesn’t need to be getting pitches like that.
“It’s a shame that the guys battled all night and it comes down to a call like that.”
As John Maine continues to toy with the National League, isn’t it time for some kind of apology from Anna Benson? While Carlos Delgao broke his HR schneid with a 3-run laser to the rightfield loge in the Mets’ 6-1 dispatch of Colorado, the New York Times’ Michael Schmidt quotes the slumping David Wright as calling himself “pull happy.” Which, to some extent sheds a bit of light on the tremendous early production of Carlos Beltran, Shawn Green and Moises Alou — would you have predicted a 12-6 start for the Mets had you known Wright would reach April 23 with no HR’s and just 4 runs batted in?