by Gordon Wittenmyer, The Chicago Sun-Times , Chicago Sun Times

''Baseball's one of those games where sometimes you can go out there and give up five and get a win and sometimes go out there and give up one and get a loss,'' he said, sounding like a lot of the veteran starters who have experienced many games like his 4-1 loss. ''With the way our lineup is one through nine, you know we're going to score some runs. The last two games we've struggled a little bit doing so, but we're going to come back and we're going to score 10 at any time.''

He walked five, one intentionally, but gave up only four hits and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth.

''Kevin pitched his butt off and gave us a chance to win,'' shortstop Ryan Theriot said, ''and we just didn't swing the bats.''

PITCHER FOR SOTO

If the Cubs are forced to put injured catcher Geovany Soto on the disabled list, they don't have a healthy catcher in the minors with big-league experience to take his place on the roster, and one source said the team might replace him with a non-catcher in that case.

That could be how the Cubs get their 12th pitcher back on the roster after the All-Star break. A series of roster moves Monday resulted in temporarily dropping a pitcher from the 25-man roster.

2ND OPENER: HARDEN

Manager Lou Piniella said righty Rich Harden will start the Cubs' first game out of the break, next Thursday at Washington, and All-Star selection Ted Lilly would get the start Saturday in Washington.

But with Ryan Dempster on the DL, where Piniella slots Carlos Zambrano, Randy Wells (both of whom pitch in Sunday's doubleheader) and Kevin Hart is in flux.

NOTES

Alfonso Soriano, who is used to being told in advance when he's not going to play, was upset Wednesday morning when he saw the lineup card didn't include his name.

But he later said he was fine with Piniella's decision, which gives Soriano a two-day breather before the big Cardinals series.

- Kosuke Fukudome, who homered for the Cubs' only run, is 6-for-17 (.353) with two walks as the leadoff hitter the last five games.

- Fukudome also committed his first error of the season -- overrunning a single to center in the ninth inning, which led to two unearned runs.

Comment at suntimes.com.

BY THE NUMBERS

1 The Cubs' NL rank in runs per game (5.31) in 2008.

15 The team's NL rank in runs per game (4.12) this season.

5.06 The Cubs' runs per game through May 16, when they were 21-14.

3.43 The Cubs' runs per game since, as they've stumbled to a 20-27 record.

15 The number of times the Cubs have scored one run or less in their last 47 games.

BOXSCORE

Atlanta AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

McLouth cf 5 2 2 0 0 0 .272

Prado 3b 3 1 2 1 2 1 .324

G.Anderson lf 4 0 1 0 1 1 .274

R.Soriano p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --

McCann c 5 0 0 0 0 1 .300

Y.Escobar ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 .292

Kotchman 1b 2 1 1 1 2 0 .275

Francoeur rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .243

Conrad 2b 3 0 1 0 1 0 .357

Kawakami p 2 0 0 0 1 0 .120

Moylan p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000

M.Gonzalez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --

d-G.Blanco ph-lf 1 0 0 0 0 1 .190

Totals 33 4 8 2 7 5

Cubs AB R H BI BB SO Avg.

Fukudome cf 3 1 1 1 1 0 .265

Theriot ss 4 0 2 0 0 0 .291

D.Lee 1b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .279

Ar.Ramirez 3b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .346

Bradley rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .236

J.Fox lf 3 0 1 0 0 0 .311

Je.Baker 2b 2 0 0 0 0 1 .111

b-Fontenot ph-2b 1 0 0 0 0 0 .231

K.Hill c 2 0 1 0 1 0 .240

K.Hart p 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000

a-M.Hoffpauir ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .242

A.Guzman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000

Marshall p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .231

Heilman p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --

c-Re.Johnson ph 0 0 0 0 0 0 .265

Gregg p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --

Totals 29 1 6 1 2 4

Atlanta 001 001 002 -- 4 8 0

Cubs 000 001 000 -- 1 6 2

a-fouled out for K.Hart in the 5th. b-grounded into a double play for Je.Baker in the 7th. c-sacrificed for Heilman in the 8th. d-struck out for M.Gonzalez in the 9th.

E--J.Fox (2), Fukudome (1). LOB--Atlanta 9, Cubs 4. 2B--McLouth (16), Conrad (1). HR--Kotchman (4), off A.Guzman; Fukudome (7), off Kawakami. RBI--Prado (16), Kotchman (31), Fukudome (27). S--Re.Johnson.

Runners left in scoring position--Atlanta 4 (McCann, McLouth 3); Cubs 2 (Bradley, Theriot). Runners moved up--Kotchman. GIDP--G.Anderson, McCann, Theriot, D.Lee, Fontenot.

DP--Atlanta 3 (Y.Escobar, Conrad, Kotchman), (Prado, Conrad, Kotchman), (Y.Escobar, Conrad, Kotchman); Cubs 2 (Je.Baker, Theriot, D.Lee), (D.Lee, Theriot, D.Lee, Je.Baker).

Atlanta IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Kawakami W, 5-6 6 4 1 1 2 2 85 4.26

Moylan H, 13 1 1 0 0 0 0 9 4.15

M.Gonzalez H, 9 1 1 0 0 0 0 9 3.05

R.Soriano S, 10-11 1 0 0 0 0 2 14 1.55

Cubs IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

K.Hart L, 0-1 5 4 1 1 5 3 89 1.69

A.Guzman 0.2 2 1 1 0 0 21 2.67

Marshall 1.1 0 0 0 1 1 16 4.12

Heilman 1 0 0 0 1 0 17 3.57

Gregg 1 2 2 0 0 1 21 3.43

Inherited runners-scored--Marshall 1-0. IBB--off K.Hart (Conrad). WP--Gregg.

Umpires--Home, Jim Joyce; First, Bill Miller; Second, Derryl Cousins; Third, Todd Tichenor. T--2:50. A--40,531 (41,210).

HOW THEY SCORED

Braves THIRD Conrad grounded out. Kawakami lined out. McLouth doubled. Prado singled, McLouth scored. One run. Braves 1, Cubs 0.

Braves SIXTH A.Guzman pitching. Kotchman homered to right on a 1-0 count. One run. Braves 2, Cubs 0.

Cubs SIXTH Fukudome homered to left on a 0-0 count. One run. Braves 2, Cubs 1.

Braves NINTH Gregg pitching. G.Blanco pinch-hitting for M.Gonzalez. G.Blanco struck out. McLouth singled. Prado singled, McLouth to second. On Fukudome's error, McLouth scored, Prado to third. G.Anderson grounded out. On Gregg's wild pitch, Prado scored. Two runs. Braves 4, Cubs 1.

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