By Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune –
ST. LOUIS — No run support, bullpen failures and bad luck conspired to keep Ryan Dempster winless through his first five starts, despite a miniscule 1.02 earned-run average.
(PHOTO: Chicago Cubs’ Tony Campana scores on a single by Alfonso Soriano in the eighth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday, May 14, 2012, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. )
But Dempster had no one but himself to blame Monday in his 300th career start after the Cubs spotted him a four-run lead against the Cardinals.
After cruising through the first five innings, Dempster finally cracked, giving up four runs in the sixth inning and leaving with another no-decision.
But the Cubs went on to win 6-4, pulling to within five games of the first-place Cardinals despite their 3-11 start.
“We’re playing better, pitching really well, playing good defense, running the bases extremely well and we’re extremely aggressive, and we’re getting results because of it,” Dempster said. “Hopefully we keep playing good baseball and climb our way back to .500.”
Alfonso Soriano’s two-out, bloop single in the eighth off Mitchell Boggs brought home the go-ahead run, giving Shawn Camp the win with two innings of scoreless relief.
“Thank God we’ve got Camp,” manager Dale Sveum said. “That was a great pickup by Theo (Epstein) and Jed (Hoyer) at the end of spring training.”
Rafael Dolis earned the save.
Dempster’s ERA still was a sparking 1.74 at the end of the night, but the failure to notch any wins has to be wearing on him by now. Dempster didn’t show it afterward, calling it “baby steps” for him. The Cubs hadn’t won any of his five previous starts.
“We got a win when I started a game,” he said. “So that’s nice.”
The Cubs stranded 14 baserunners, went 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position and still haven’t figured out how to execute a bunt, a recurring theme. Dale Sveum made a risky move in the eighth by having Starlin Castro sacrifice with two on and no outs.
Sveum said he wanted to stay out of the double play, “even though you figure they’re going to walk (Bryan) LaHair” to get to Soriano.
“The more people you start getting on base and turning that (lineup) over is fine with me,” Sveum said.
Soriano was 0-for-9 with seven strikeouts against the reliever, while LaHair already was 3-for-4 in the game with a two-run homer.
Lance Berkman fielded Castro’s poor bunt, fired to third for the force and got a double play. LaHair was indeed walked intentionally, but Soriano came up with the big hit.
“I can’t think about what happened in the past,” Soriano said. “I remember a couple times he got me out, but today was a new day and a new at-bat.”
The Cubs added a run in the ninth, thanks to two errors on sacrifice attempts. David Freese’s errant throw on a poorly executed bunt by Joe Mather made it 6-4.
Sveum conceded the obvious — the Cubs need a bunting intervention.
“Some poor bunting, but it wasn’t as much the bunting as you have to pull back and slash in those situations when they’re charging,” he said. “It’s hard to get guys to understand that. It’s something you work on and work on, but it kind of speeds up a little during the game. That’s something we have to work on as much as anything because it’s such a prevalent part of the game.”
