Poison ivy

Maddux's contribution? A home run, the capstone moment on a day in which the Cubs -- riding Boston pitching and a southwesterly breeze -- launched four balls over the ivy walls, cranked out 20 hits, and beleaguered the Red Sox, 14-6.

The Red Sox waited 89 years for this?

Boston had never before visited Chicago's North Side ballpark, which opened in 1916. The 1918 World Series vs. the Cubs? That was staged at Comiskey Park. At long last they arrived here yesterday morning to a playoff-size media crowd. Even principal owner John W. Henry sat on the Sox bench during batting practice. Looking around, he deemed Wrigley ''a country fair without the advertising."

But, by the time Maddux had taken John Halama deep to make it 11-2 Cubs, the Sox may have felt like the muscular kid at the fair who watches a runt step up, struggle to lift the hammer, and proceed to ring the bell.

The difficulty for the Sox, then, is answering the bell. They've won only 11 of 26 games dating to May 13, they've allowed 13 or more runs four times in that span, and they've been failed more than anything by their starting pitching.

''We've gotten ourselves in too many games where we're down early," down manager Terry Francona said postgame/mortem. ''That's not an easy way to do things. [Thursday] we got everybody rest, we're an hour into this game, and we're already concerned about the bullpen. That's a tough way to do it."

What Francona was getting at is this: In the last 26 games, Sox starters have gone 6-12 with a 6.46 ERA. Arroyo yesterday lasted only four innings -- 10 hits (two home runs), 7 runs, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts -- and had the Sox in a 3-0 hole after two innings and 7-1 after three. In those 26 games, Arroyo and rest of the rotation coughed up 69 runs in the first two innings.

''I still believe we have good enough pitching, good enough players, to win games," said Francona, who has been without his ace, Curt Schilling, for seven weeks now.

''We just haven't done a good enough job."

Asked if he has enough personnel options and the room to change players' roles, Francona answered in the affirmative but stood by his current stock.