CHICAGO — There is a bluntness to baseball that is cruel and intoxicating. It is a sport that is measured in innings, but nervous breakdowns also would suffice.
On a raw Monday night at Wrigley Field, the Rockies and Cubs threw a combined 320 pitches. But in the end, only a handful were necessary to determine the outcome, leaving the Rockies bitter after a 4-2 loss on Aramis Ramirez’s 11th-inning walkoff home run.
“I gave him a cookie, and he punished it,” Rockies reliever Matt Belisle said. “That’s the last thing I wanted to do.”
Before meeting with reporters, Belisle stood in the back of the clubhouse, took a deep breath and walked to his locker. It was a perfect snapshot of a game that was difficult to digest. Truth is, Belisle should never have faced Ramirez. He should never have been required to work a third inning, the latter necessary because closer Manuel Corpas was unavailable as a concession to his recent workload.
“I got my hit at the right time,” Ramirez said. “Hopefully, that can carry over and I can take off.”
Long before Ramirez, who needs Mick Billmeyer’s binoculars to see a .200 average, clobbered a 92-mph fastball into the left-field seats, the Rockies were handed this game. And they re-gifted.
“The thing that is tough is that I felt we put ourselves in a better position to win than they did,” manager Jim Tracy said. “We had a couple of ideal situations, but . . .”
In the fourth inning, the Cubs were sticking out their chin, begging to get floored. They are currently residing at the intersection of Sheffield and Dysfunction. Before the game, the general manager doused speculation about manager Lou Piniella’s job security. Afterward, Piniella revealed that opening-day starter Carlos Zambrano was moving from setup man to a long relief role, which should prepare him to rejoin the rotation.
In between, the Rockies had Randy Wells teetering in the fourth. But with the bases loaded and a 2-0 count on Ian Stewart, Wells recovered, striking out the third baseman and Clint Barmes.
“He was using a changeup, a cutter, changing speeds well,” Stewart said. “You would think you were on it, and the ball was moving away from you.”
In the eighth, a similar scenario played out with equally disappointing results. Rescuing John Grabow, who was booed off the mound by the Cubs’ smallest home crowd this season (35,760), Carlos Marmol attempted to record his first five-out save since 2008. Instead, he issued a bases-loaded, game-tying four-pitch walk to Miguel Olivo.
But Stewart, the next batter, grounded into a double play to end the threat.
Aaron Cook kept the Rockies within arm’s reach, matching zeros with Wells. The veteran right-hander worked seven innings, allowing two runs, deftly mixing in a 76-mph curveball to complement his sinker.
The second run charged to Cook was unearned. Troy Tulowitzki set up Koyie Hill’s bloop RBI single by mishandling a groundball. Rather than focus on the cheap hit, Cook second-guessed his pitch selection — namely why he bothered to pitch to Hill at all with Wells on deck.
“It’s eating me up,” Cook said. “This loss is on me.”
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
Looking ahead
TODAY: Rockies at Cubs, 6:05 p.m., FSN, KOA 850 AM
Jhoulys Chacin (2-1, 2.66 ERA) was punished for two mistakes to Washington’s Ryan Zimmerman. This is another interesting wrinkle in the rookie’s development: how he handles adversity. Chacin baffled the Cubs as a reliever last season, particularly with his changeup and slider. The Cubs’ Carlos Silva (4-0, 3.40), a salary match so Chicago could shed malcontent Milton Bradley, has been a stabilizing force in the rotation. Silva is looking to go 5-0 for the first time since 2004 with the Twins. Lefties are hitting just .173 against him.
Troy E. Renck, The Denver Post
Upcoming pitching matchups
Wednesday: Rockies’ Greg Smith (1-2, 6.35 ERA) at Astros’ Felipe Paulino (0-6, 5.72), 6:05 p.m., FSN
Thursday: Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez (7-1, 1.12) at Astros’ Roy Oswalt (2-5, 2.62), 6:05 p.m., FSN
Friday: Rockies’ Jason Hammel (1-2, 7.71) at Royals’ Brian Bannister (2-3, 5.09), 6:10 p.m., FSN
Saturday: Rockies’ Jeff Francis (0-0, 1.29) at Royals’ Kyle Davies (3-2, 4.93), 2:10 p.m., FSN
