Wind changes, as does Cubs' luck against Burres
CHICAGO (AP) ? Chicago Cubs manager Mike Quade was surprised when he returned to the field after batting practice to find the steady wind blowing out had completely changed.
He was surprised later to find the Cubs could no longer beat up on Brian Burres.
Burres pitched into the sixth in his first start of the season, outpitching Ryan Dempster as the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cubs 3-1 on Friday.
Burres (1-0) allowed one run and five hits over 5 1-3 innings. The left-hander was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis on Thursday.
He pitched at Wrigley twice in 2010, surrendering 11 runs over seven innings.
"I was a little surprised. We hadn't seen that kid recently, but we have some history with him. We handled him better in the past than we did today," Quade said. "Just changing speeds finesse guy, good cutter, running the ball down and in on right-handers.
"The conditions changed from batting practice ? it was unbelievable. They had a high-scoring day written all over it when we hit. When I came out for the game, I was surprised."
The Cubs got under a few balls, but a potential home run fest became a one-man show.
The only scratch on Burres' day was Carlos Pena's homer to lead off the second, his 25th of the year. The first baseman has at least 25 homers in five straight seasons and six times overall in his career.
"I said this before, just the fact that I've been able to hit one in the big leagues is a blessing to me and I'm very grateful for it, let alone hit so many," Pena said. "I'm very grateful and I want to keep going that way, I want to keep hitting some more."
Dempster (10-11) worked out of a couple of early jams and held Pittsburgh to three runs and seven hits over 6 1-3 innings. He struck out nine, two shy of his season best, and threw a season-high 121 pitches for the Cubs, who have lost nine of 12.
"I tried to survive those first couple innings, they fouled off a lot of pitches," Dempster said. "I was able to get out there and get into the seventh. I just could have made some better pitches there in the third inning. I left a couple balls up and it ended up being enough to cost us the game."
Trailing 1-0, Pittsburgh put up two in the third. Alex Presley led off with a triple off the right-field wall and Josh Harrison followed with a single to right. Garrett Jones added a two-out RBI double.
Neither team mounted much offense after that. The Cubs stranded two runners in the third and fourth. The Pirates didn't threaten again until Presley's one-out triple in the seventh chased Dempster. Presley scored on Jose Tabata's two-out single off Kerry Wood.
Presley tripled twice, reached four times and scored twice as Pittsburgh snapped a five-game losing streak. Harrison doubled, singled and scored twice.
Presley became the first Pirate to record two triples in a game since Andrew McCutchen on June 8, 2009. He has five triples on the season.
"I was familiar with Dempster from the last time facing him so I tried to be a little more aggressive," he said.
Four Pirates relievers combined for 3 2-3 perfect innings, with Joel Hanrahan picking up his 33rd save in 36 chances. Jason Grilli got the last two outs of the sixth, Chris Leroux pitched the seventh and Jose Veras worked the eighth before Hanrahan struck out two in the ninth.
Fielding woes have plagued the Cubs, who entered with a major league-leading 114 errors and added two more on Friday. That doesn't include a miscue in the first when Harrison's grounder to shortstop Starlin Castro was misplayed into a rare infield double when the Cubs failed to cover second base.
McCutchen was hit in the left wrist area in the first inning. He remained in the game to run the bases, but was replaced by Tabata before the Cubs batted in the bottom half.
NOTES: The Cubs promoted 1B Bryan LaHair from Triple-A Iowa. LaHair's 38 home runs for Iowa were leading the minor leagues. . Cubs RHP Andrew Cashner (right rotator cuff sprain) pitched a scoreless inning in a rehab outing for Iowa. Manager Mike Quade said Cashner reached 99 mph with his fastball and the club is hopeful he will return to the big leagues next week. . The Cubs announced that RHP Carlos Zambrano will not pitch for them again this season, even though his time on the disqualified list expires on Sept. 11. . The Cubs will send RHP Casey Coleman to the hill on Saturday to face Pittsburgh RHP Ross Ohlendorf. Coleman has an 11.34 ERA in 19 2-3 innings at Wrigley Field this season.
Copyright � 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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