Sloppy Cubs Lose to Reds 7-5

The plate of food -- an ear of corn resting next to a pile of sweet-smelling barbecue -- sat untouched on manager Mike Quade's desk.

"You guys want to eat?" he asked reporters. "I sure don't."

Another Cubs meltdown took his appetite away.

Reliever Kerry Wood's throwing error let two runs score, and Chris Heisey followed with a tiebreaking sacrifice fly that sent the Cincinnati Reds to a 7-5 win over the sloppy Cubs on a wet, miserable Tuesday night.

A steady rain and 50-degree temperature made everything messy, especially when the Cubs were handling the ball. They committed four errors, making all seven of Cincinnati's runs unearned.

"That was unbelievable," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "Just goes to show that if you stick around here, you'll see a lot of things -- a lot of knockdown, drag-out games. It's a challenge."

The final error decided it.

With runners on first and second, Ryan Hanigan bunted back to Wood (1-3), who thought he had a chance for a third-to-first double play. Instead, he threw wide of third, letting two runs score while Hanigan made it all the way to third base.

"The ball's going to be wet, so you just make sure you make a good throw and I threw it to the wall," Wood said. "I had a (good) grip. When I went to go throw it, it slips out."

Heisey then put the Reds ahead, and Joey Votto added an RBI double that sent the Reds to their 11th win in 13 games, sweeping the two-game series.

Bill Bray (1-0) got the win by retiring the one batter he faced in the eighth. Nick Masset pitched the ninth for his first save in four tries, filling in because closer Francisco Cordero had pitched the last four days.

The Reds did a better job handling the conditions, committing only one error.

While the Reds reached a season-high at eight games over .500, the Cubs fell to a new low at 17-23, collapsing for the second game in a row. Quade called a closed-door meeting after Chicago blew a four-run lead and lost 7-4 Monday night.

A day later, the Cubs again fell apart in tough conditions.

"I guess Knute Rockne I'm not," Quade said.

Quade noted the Cubs should be accustomed to playing in bad weather because they've had so much of it this season. Instead, they made a lot more mistakes.

"It's the multitude of them that's killing us right now," he said. "And it's costing us. It's cost us a lot of ballgames the last week or so. It's costing me a lot of sleep, too."

Carlos Pena put the Cubs up with a three-run homer in the first inning off Edinson Volquez, who can't seem to get through the opening inning without problems. The right-hander has given up runs in six of his nine opening innings. Volquez has allowed 17 earned runs in the first inning, 13 in all other innings combined.

It was Pena's fifth homer and his second in two games.

Just like on Monday night, the Cubs gave it away. Starter Matt Garza intentionally walked Ramon Hernandez to load the bases with two outs in the fourth, bringing up Volquez, who doesn't have a hit this season. Volquez hit a grounder that deflected off Pena's glove at first for an error. Garza got the ball and compounded the problem by throwing wildly to home, letting in two more runs.

"I tried to make something happen and I didn't have to," Garza said. "It's just one of those things where it's an ugly way to lose."

The Cubs regained the lead when Jose Arredondo forced home a run with a bases-loaded walk in the seventh. Outfielder Tony Campana, called up before the game, doubled home a run in the eighth in his first big league at-bat for a 7-5 lead.

Wood then threw it away.

Chicago's Marlon Byrd matched his career high by striking out four times, ending a 16-game hitting streak that was the best of his career.