"D-Train comes to a screeching halt"

'D-Train' comes to screeching halt

Six-run third inning derails Willis' bid to win his ninth consecutive decision

By CLARK SPENCER

BATTERED: Marlins rookie Dontrelle Willis (9-2) is consoled by catcher Iv?n Rodr?guez before leaving in the third inning Sunday. Willis gave up six runs after a 67-minute rain delay. 'No excuses,' he said.

The engine coughed and wheezed. The wheels rattled and screeched. Dontrelle Willis -- the ''D-Train'' -- was reduced to twisted wreckage Sunday and left smoldering by the Chicago Cubs in the rubble of the worst home loss in franchise history, a 16-2 blowout at Pro Player Stadium.

''He just got the [heck] kicked out of him,'' manager Jack McKeon said of the rookie, who lost for the first time in his past nine decisions. ``You knew it was going to happen one of these days.''

When Willis handed the ball to McKeon after failing to register an out in the Cubs' six-run third inning, the pitcher walked back to the dugout shaking his head and wiping the perspiration from his face with his jersey.

''They just had my number today,'' he said.

The Cubs amassed 20 hits against a cast of four pitchers. There were nine Cubs doubles and a 484-foot home run by Sammy Sosa -- the fourth-longest ever hit at Pro Player.

Why, even Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano had three hits, including a leadoff double in the third off Willis that lit the fuse for the fireworks ahead.

''That's what opened the floodgates for them,'' Willis said.

The 21-year-old left-hander, baseball's newest young star, couldn't have chosen a more apt description, for it was after returning from a 67-minute rain delay that Willis went from indomitable to ordinary. Starting with Zambrano's double, Willis gave up hits to six straight batters before he was lifted after walking the seventh.

But Willis didn't blame the rain delay for his rapid plunge. After all, Zambrano hardly seemed fazed and, as Willis noted, ''It wasn't like my side of the field was raining and his wasn't.'' Zambrano pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing one run.

''No excuses,'' Willis said. ``I was throwing the ball the same way the first two innings.''

It was a strange sight to behold for the crowd of 25,574, inasmuch as Willis had never lost at home and had not given up as many runs in his previous six starts combined. His record fell to 9-2, while his ERA ballooned from 2.08 to 2.67.

The Marlins, who were shut out 1-0 on Saturday night, lost back-to-back games for the first time since June 17. They also dropped six games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League wild-card race.

The 14-run margin of defeat was the worst for a Marlins team on their home field, easily outdistancing the 11-run outputs given up by Florida twice before.

''We didn't give 'em a good game today,'' McKeon said of the third straight large crowd, which brought attendance for the weekend to 82,180 -- the most for a three-game series since 2001, when 116,527 turned out to see the New York Yankees.

The Marlins were playing without two of their regulars, third baseman Mike Lowell and second baseman Luis Castillo. Lowell missed the entire series while undergoing tests to determine the cause of his ailing groin, and could be back in the lineup tonight. Castillo had the day off.

Not that two players could have made up the 14-run difference.

''They hit everybody we threw at them,'' McKeon said. ``Nobody escaped.''

Tommy Phelps gave up two runs -- one earned -- on six hits, Michael Tejera gave up a run on two hits, and Armando Almanza surrendered seven runs on six hits. Almanza's ERA shot up to 5.91, thanks in small part to Sosa's mammoth home run -- a solo shot into the upper deck in left field to start the eighth.

But it was Willis who drew most of the attention in his first start since representing the NL in Tuesday's All-Star Game in Chicago.

''That's the flip side of having success,'' Willis said of Sunday's performance.

McKeon's words to Willis when he walked to the mound and removed him from the game summed up the afternoon: 'I just said, `It wasn't your day. Give me the ball. You're going to have these once in a while.' ''