Monday, March 12, 2012

Cubs hurt, but make Phils suffer // Girardi, Dunston injured

CUBS 4 PHILLIES 1

The Cubs ran with a limp to Pittsburgh after Wednesday's game.

They ran away with their fifth straight victory at WrigleyField, this time 4-1 over the Philadelphia Phillies, but limped awaywith two injured players.

Shortstop Shawon Dunston left the game with a right-hamstringstrain while completing a second-inning double, and catcher JoeGirardi was unavailable with a lower-back strain.

Dunston is on a day-to-day basis. Girardi was put on thedisabled list.

"I can't leave on an 11-game road trip with only one catcher,"manager Don Zimmer said. "We don't know what's going to happen withHector Villanueva (broken hand).

Girardi said the pain extends down his left leg.

"I can't land on my left leg (when throwing)," he said. "It'sbeen bothering me now for two weeks. I don't know how it happened.It's the first time I've had an injury like this."

Catcher Erik Pappas was supposed to go to Class AAA Iowa todayto make room for pitcher Rick Sutcliffe, but he will stay.

The triumph completed a three-game sweep of the Phillies, theCubs' first over Philadelphia since 1986 when Ed Lynch, Lee Smith andGuy Hoffman were the winning pitchers.

The current Phillies didn't help themselves with 15 walks andsix wild pitches in the series.

Shawn Boskie went 6 1/3 innings for the victory. PaulAssenmacher worked 1 2/3 and Dave Smith the final inning for hisfourth save in a row.

George Bell hit his second home run in as many days, but the runthat held up as the winner came moments later on a freak wild pitchon an intentional walk.

Pat Combs wild-pitched Dunston to third base after Bell'sleadoff homer in the second inning, so Combs tried to complete awalk to Gary Scott. The chilled crowd of 13,680 went wild withdelight when Combs threw wildly past startled catcher Darren Daulton.

Dunston picked himself up slowly from his run-scoring slide onthe hamstring area and didn't come out for the next inning.

The Cubs added an unearned run in the third on Bell's singleafter Charlie Hayes' error at third base. They completed theirscoring in the eighth on a triple by Andre Dawson off DarrellAkerfelds and sacrifice fly by Dunston's substitute, Jose Vizcaino.

Boskie allowed only four hits, but three times he had to escapetwo-on situations. One came in the first inning when he walked thefirst two Phillies. That brought Zimmer to the mound.

"I said, `Son, the only way they're going to beat you is if youwalk them.' One thing about Wrigley Field, if you walk guys with thewind blowing in, you can hurt yourself."

Boskie: "He doesn't put up with walks. Right away when I walkedthose two guys, I knew that's what he was going to say."

Zimmer pulled Boskie with an 0-and-2 count on Lenny Dykstra inthe seventh.

"I wasn't surprised," Boskie said. "I know Assenmacher has anasty curve ball. I thought, `Hey, that's fine. Go ahead. Let'swin this thing.' "

The only run was unearned in the third on Damon Berryhill'spassed ball. Combs and Dykstra led with walks and advanced on thepassed ball. Combs came in on Von Hayes' sacrifice fly.

Assenmacher went to six season innings without a run by retiringall five batters. He feels he discovered his trusty curveball justin time.

"The last couple of games I've felt comfortable with it," hesaid. "The weather helped me the first week. I got away with somemistakes." Box score, Page 94.

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