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TORONTO — The retractable roof at the Rogers Centre began to close during the second inning as the sky began to darken with a thunderstorm moving into the area.
For the Toronto Blue Jays, it just felt like the entire darn thing was collapsing all around them.
It was a flat, uninspiring effort by the Blue Jays and the end result was a concise 7-4 Chicago Cubs victory Sunday before 40,738 who couldn't find anything better to do on Father's Day.
And their patience with another soft outing by the Jays, 35-36, who lost for the eighth time in their past 11 games, is obviously wearing thin, as is the case with Toronto manager John Gibbons.
Chicago Cubs first baseman Micah Hoffpauir chases a foul ball into the stands during the second inning of play against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto on Saturday. Hoffpauir did not make the catch. (Fred Thornhill/Reuters)
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- Chicago Cubs
- Rod Barajas
- Shawn Camp
- Neal Cotts
- Ryan Dempster
- Jim Edmonds
- Kosuke Fukudome
- Roy Halladay
- Reed Johnson
- Derrek Lee
- Ted Lilly
- Jesse Litsch
- Kevin Mench
- Aramis Ramirez
- Scott Rolen
- Marco Scutaro
- Ryan Theriot
- Curtis Thigpen
- Brad Wilkerson
- Kerry Wood
- Gregg Zaun
For the second time in three games, Gibbons was ejected, this time in the ninth inning after arguing the call of first-base umpire Adrian Johnson, who deemed Marco Scutaro out on a close play at first base.
"We're not playing good enough to win," said crestfallen Gibbons, whose team has fallen into last place in the American League East, a whopping 81/2 games behind the front-running Boston Red Sox. "I don't know how to sum it up any better than that."
Perhaps the Jays' futility was best illustrated in the fifth inning when Chicago pitcher Ted Lilly struck out the side: John McDonald, Alex Rios and Marco Scutaro, with both McDonald and Scutaro going down looking.
Others might point to the third inning, when the Jays managed to mount a threat, loading the bases with two out for Vernon Wells.
All Wells did was swing at the first pitch thrown by Lilly, and he lifted a weak fly ball to shallow right field that was caught by Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa.
"Bottom line right now, we're not playing well enough to win," Gibbons reiterated. "This series, we got outhit, we got outpitched. They got a good ball club — that's why they're sitting where they're at.
"We're scuffling. That's probably an understatement."
With Sunday's win, the Cubs won the series 2-1 and improved their record to a major-league-best 44-25.
Lilly, the former Jays pitcher whose celebrated dust-up with Gibbons two seasons ago precipitated his leaving Toronto in the off-season as a free agent, pitched like a Cy Young candidate.
The light-hitting Jays have had that effect on many opposing pitchers this season. Sunday, the Cubs outhit Toronto 12-6.
Lilly, 7-5, had a no-hitter going in the fifth inning when Brad Wilkerson broke up the bid with a single to centre field. It was the only run he gave up over 61/3 innings.
Jesse Litsch held the Cubs hitless over the first two innings before he crumpled in the third, giving up five Chicago hits that resulted in a 3-0 lead.
Micah Hoffpauir began the uprising with a leadoff double and scored the game's first run when Jays killer Reed Johnson — the former Toronto hand had a three-run home run in Saturday's 6-2 Cubs victory — singled to right field.
Kosuke Fukudome and Jim Edmonds also each knocked in a run during the inning.
If the outcome wasn't already a forgone conclusion, it certainly turned that way in the four-run seventh inning, when Litsch's afternoon came to an end after he gave up two more hits, including a double by Johnson.
Shawn Camp came into the game with two on and one out and promptly gave up a single to centre field by Derrek Lee, who had three runs batted in on the game.
Both Ryan Theriot and Johnson scored, although Johnson might have been tagged out on the throw home by Alex Rios if only Toronto catcher Rod Barajas had been able to hang on to the ball.
Aramis Ramirez then hammered a Camp pitch over the wall in centre field, a two-run shot that brought the score to 7-0. Litsch gave up eight hits and five earned runs and his record dipped to 5-2. The Jays finally got on the board in the seventh inning when Gregg Zaun came home on a sacrifice fly by Rios.
The Jays put up two more runs in the eighth inning when Zaun, who was just activated off the disabled list, crunched a two-run home run. Cubs closer Kerry Wood gave up a run in the ninth inning before closing things out.
About the only good news the Jays could take from the game is that Scott Rolen, who fouled a ball off his foot and had to leave the game in the seventh inning, should be all right.
The third baseman had an X-ray, but the results were negative.
"They're getting more runs than we are, that's what happening," Rolen said when asked to try to pinpoint the root of the Jays' problems. "I don't think there's a magic formula. There's no sense in pointing fingers."
