CHICAGO • There were days five and six summers ago that the Cardinals' infield defense helped elevate Jeff Suppan. This time around it has helped keep him down.
On a scalding afternoon when a hitter's wind blew at Wrigley Field, the Cardinals suffered one of their most thorough setbacks this season in a 5-0 loss that offered all sorts of bad history.
Less than two months after he failed to secure an out against the Cardinals in a 16-pitch eviction from the first inning, Cubs starter Randy Wells (5-7) atoned by holding a suddenly dormant lineup to five singles.
The Cardinals, who trailed from Suppan's first strike on, have followed an eight-game winning streak with their first consecutive shutout losses since the season before Tony La Russa arrived as manager.
Held to one hit in 11 innings by the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, the Cardinals left Wrigley's heat-ripened confines on a 20-inning scoreless skid. The offensive brownout, however, had to share equal billing with a defense not suited to support a contact pitcher such as Suppan, now 0-4 in seven starts since returning to the team he helped to two World Series.
"If we play just average defense behind him, we probably win every one of his starts," said pitching coach Dave Duncan. "But we haven't played average defense in any of them."
They haven't managed acceptable offense the last two games, either. Thursday's loss could be attributed to Cole Hamels' dominance. They were victimized Friday by a pitcher who relies heavily on a fastball, change-up and good location. While the Cubs jumped Suppan for two first-strike home runs, some in the Cardinals clubhouse wondered if they also would have benefited from more aggression early in counts. They placed the leadoff hitter on base four times but pushed only one runner to third, and that one on a wild pick-off attempt.
"He threw strikes and he got us out," second baseman Skip Schumaker said. "I don't know if there's much else to say."
The loss snapped the Cardinals' major-league record 2,370 games (Sept. 24-25, 1995) without enduring back-to-back shutouts. La Russa hadn't witnessed the indignity since 1993 while with the Oakland A's.
The Cardinals weren't charged with an error Friday, but from the outset no play appeared routine. The topper occurred in the sixth inning when a two-out pop fly fell untouched to the third-base side short of the mound, allowing the Cubs' Ryan Theriot to score from second base.
The play was ruled a hit for shortstop Sterling Castro and an earned run against Suppan. The next sound heard was La Russa slamming the bullpen phone in the visitors' dugout.
"We didn't really support Jeff," La Russa said. "He pitched better than five runs" allowed.
Suppan (0-6) allowed three home runs among 10 hits and three walks without a strikeout. Minus two bungled two-out plays that extended innings, he might have escaped with two runs allowed.
"You can't control the results, but you want to get some results," said Suppan, whose last win was last Sept. 19 with the Milwaukee Brewers.
"I've given everything I've had in every game. I feel I'm prepared when I go out there. I feel I'm making better pitches. ... I feel like I'm doing what I'm supposed to do."
Suppan carries a 4.75 ERA in his second tour with the Cardinals. He worked Friday in blistering heat with only several relievers available. Among the homers he surrendered was the game-winner to Cubs rookie right fielder Tyler Colvin on his third pitch. However, Suppan was also victimized by left fielder Alfonso Soriano's two-out, two-run shot after a double play went unmade in the fifth inning.
"We didn't support him," La Russa responded when pressed. "We didn't give him any runs and defensively we didn't support him as well as he deserved."
"Every time he's gone out he's kept us in the game," said Jason LaRue, who caught Suppan for a sixth consecutive start. "Every time I think he's gotten better, actually."
The untouched pop fly typified the day. Suppan glanced to third base as soon as the ball went up, but third baseman Felipe Lopez never strayed far from the bag. LaRue assumed it to be the infielder's play.
La Russa assigned responsibility for the play to "the third baseman, probably."
"The ball lands out by the pitcher's mound," said LaRue. "It's not the catcher's ball."
"You can blame it on me," Lopez said, "because no one else is going to take the blame. Just put it on me."
Lopez also double-clutched on a first-inning grounder that became an infield single for Castro. (Lopez started a double play on the next play to erase the gaffe.) The Cardinals twice failed to complete double plays in a scoreless third inning and were burned for two runs after second baseman Skip Schumaker couldn't extract the ball from his glove to complete a fifth-inning turn.
An efficient, often spectacular, defense supported Suppan during his three-year tour with the Cardinals.
Now the righthanded ground ball specialist is flanked by Lopez, a more comfortable middle infielder; Schumaker, a converted outfielder; and shortstop Tyler Greene, who Friday played his first game on Wrigley's quirky infield. Gold Glove recipient Albert Pujols is the only holdover.
Wrigley offers its own set of challenges. "You know it's going to be windy; it's going be sunny," Schumaker said. "You look at the history of this field and I'm sure there are more miscues and more weird things going on than any place. You've got to concentrate every pitch. Having said that, it can happen on their side, too. It happened on our side today."
La Russa admitted, "It's never an easy place to play. The ball hops around pretty good."
But that didn't remove the edge from the manager's take.
"I just know if you look at all of our starters in all of our games, Suppan has probably been victimized more than anybody, given his number of starts," La Russa said. "The one thing he can do is work faster. He did that."
"It's fair to say we do not play good defense behind him," Duncan said. "Given his style of pitching, he needs good defense. He's going to make them put the ball in play a high percentage of the time."
