Like being seen by your homely ex-girlfriend - always nice but not much to write home about - when you're out on the town with your much better looking new love interest, the Cubs and Nomar Garciaparra visit the Expos and Alex Gonzalez. There will be some necktie adjusting and awkward glances between the Cubbies and Gonzo and some evil glares met by an air of disinterested superiority between Alex and Nomar, and the Cubs will be glad when they finally leave.

Except that Nomar won't be playing much because of the turf - nor Aramis Ramirez - and the Expos and Gonzalez have a chance to give the Cubs second thoughts about the splitup. The Cubbies are coming off a terrible series with the Astros and the Expos are decent when they play at home, going 31-34 so far this year. The Expos are 2nd to last in runs scored in the NL, however, and they're facing some pretty tough pitchers in Maddux, Prior, and Wood. Of course, Woody will have to recover from his 7-run fiasco in his last start, but he'll be facing a much less potent lineup.

Starting pitching is the key to this series, and historically Maddux, Prior, and Wood have done pretty well against the Expos, although Prior and Wood haven't faced them much. Below are links to the full splits on espn.com plus at-bats, batting average, and home runs:

Maddux - 331 AB, .266 BA, 3 HR
Prior - 46 AB, .261 BA, 1 HR
Wood - 31 AB, .194, 1 HR

Maddux is the only one to face Alex Gonzalez and surprise, Gonzalez is 2 for 14 against him.

Its obvious, but the Cubs need to win the series. San Diego and San Francisco moved into a tie with the Cubs for the Wild Card yesterday, and they need to keep pace or they risk fighting with the Astros as well. A good thing about the Astros schedule is that they face the Giants 3 more times and the Cardinals 6 more times this year, although it wouldn't surprise me at all if Tony LaRussa decided to rest his starters those 6 games and fall into a convenient slump. I guess if you're 42 games above .500 you can afford to do that sort of thing.

- posted by Mike J. @ 12:16 PM
|

After his magnificent meltdown on Friday where he let in 6 runs in the 9th inning, Kyle Farnsworth took out his aggression on an electric fan in the dugout and landed himself on the 15-day DL with a bruised knee. This is probably a blessing because Todd Wellemeyer is now back with the Cubs, who did well in his 12 appearances, earning a 2.20 ERA over 16 innings this year, and this is certainly an upgrade over the wild Farnsworth.

In Kyle's absence, Ryan Dempster and Mike Remlinger did their best Kyle Farnsworth impressions during today's final game of the series, combining their forces to pull off a terrible eighth inning. Dempster started off by loading the bases, plunking Carlos Beltran and causing him to leave the game with a bruised knee before handing it over to Remlinger, who immediately "hit" Lance Berkman and forced the first of 5 runs in. All in all 5 singles, 2 hit by pitches, and a walk put the game out of reach for the Cubs, who wiped away any memory of a winning streak from Cubs' fans minds by dropping 3 of 4 to Houston.

I was listening to the radio when Berkman got hit by a pitch, and at first Pat Hughes reported that he was hit in the helmet, but later it turned out that he was hit in the hand. Berkman's been watching soccer, apparently, and he thought it would be a good idea to try flopping around on the field to try and get Remlinger tossed. This is the last time the Cubs see the Astros this year, but there's no doubt in my mind the bad blood will carry over. After all the bean balls the Astros received in the last few games it came as no surprise that Dan Wheeler took a cheap shot at Derrek Lee in the 9th - getting himself tossed in the process, of course - but hopefully this will just translate into more exciting baseball next year.

Not likely, though. The Cubs continue their manic-depressive ways by getting red hot and then stone cold the next, but this time around their starting pitching imploded in addition to their bullpen. The worst play of the series came at the hands of Carlos Zambrano, who almost worked his way out of a bases loaded jam in the 2nd inning of Saturday's game, but instead of catching the flip from a sprawled out Lee to end the inning, he missed the toss and allowed 3 runs to score because of the error.

There's not really a lot to say about these games. The Cubs played in spectacularly terrible fashion and allowed the Astros to come within 4 in the Wild Card race, giving them another team to worry about. Right now they're tied with San Diego for the final playoff spot and San Francisco can tie with them as well tonight. The Cubs have plenty to worry about, but Greg Maddux takes the mound tomorrow and if there's one person that can stop the bleeding, its a 300-game winner.

- posted by Mike J. @ 4:47 PM
|

I haven't had much to say the last week or so because I was still waiting for the Cubs to pass the Clement test. They did handily Tuesday night when they walloped a flailing Brewers team 13-4, and I thought that they were finally performing like a playoff-worthy team.

Today proved me wrong. Corey Patterson helped the Cubs pull of a hell of a win in the bottom of the 9th with a walkoff dinger, but they never should have come to bat. LaTroy Hawkins blew the save and eventually got the win that should have been Greg Maddux's. It proved that the Cubs still don't have a reliable closer and it doesn't look like they'll get one if Hawkins doesn't shape up- Joe Borowski started in Iowa Tuesday night and got rocked for 4 runs in 0 IP. Ugh.

The Cubs have a great shot at holding onto the Wild Card now that they won with Clement pitching (and giving up 4 ER in the process), but their hopes in the playoffs are severely limited with a shaky closer. The Dodgers, Braves, and especially the Cardinals will jump all over Hawkins the way he's pitching now, but there may be a solution. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to convert the extra starter to a closer- Matt Clement doesn't go very deep in games because his pitch count gets high, but he's great at getting out of jams and has more strikeouts than any other Cub pitcher. They may need another starter during the course of the playoffs besides Prior, Wood, Big Z, and Maddux, but hey, Glendon Rusch is always there.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself, though. There's plenty of games to be played still, and right now the Cubs just need to keep winning series and hopefully Hawkins will find some confidence, so now we have the Hawkins test. If he can convincingly close 5 games in 5 attempts, then the Cubs will have the one piece they're missing.

- posted by Mike J. @ 7:13 PM
|

The mere thought of facing Eric Gagne ruined the end of a great game yesterday, and the Cubs let a close game be blown wide open in the 9th inning, allowing 6 runs to remove all doubt of an impending loss. This was incredibly disappointing, especially considering the defensive performance of Corey Patterson, who turned two double plays, one to home plate to keep the game at 2-1 and another to throw out Adrian Beltre at third the next inning. Corey was getting himself on track before Nomar arrived, but now that he's in the one-spot, he's taking off.

Patterson's always had the ability, and it seems like mentally he's finally realizing what he's capable of and now he's doing it. This is unlike the majority of the Cubs team, who seemed bewildered in yesterday's loss and unable to stage any sort of rally. How can a team flip flop so quickly? When Nomar arrived, the Cubs came back to win 3 in a row, but the last few days the idea of rallying in the late innings - or mustering any kind of offense, for that matter - appears to be completely foreign to them.

After this series the Cubs only play 1 more team with a record above .500, and that's the Atlanta Braves to finish the season. They'll probably flip right back to producing runs against those teams, but its nerve-wracking to see how poorly they're performing against some of the closest competitors for the Wild Card and who they would probably meet in the playoffs.

---

On an unrelated note, Old Style Cubs got its 3,000th visitor (woohoo!) sometime late last night after 3 and a half months in existence, and I have to say the amount of readers we get has already surpassed what I expected. Thanks everyone for reading, and I hope ya keep coming back.

- posted by Mike J. @ 11:17 AM
|

As a Cubs fan, I am naturally prone to irrational behavior and hasty judgement, and its easy to get carried away sometimes. As someone who tries to write about the Cubs, I use this hasty judgement as a compass and when it points north, I go south, and then I have a reasonable argument. Most of the time, anyway.

I almost caved today, thinking I would write a seething post on Sammy's near complete inability to hit, and how he'd be better off batting seventh and giving the cleanup spot to Derrek Lee instead. I came to my senses but a few minutes after sitting down at the computer and realized this would surely be the easy way out. I won't talk about what I think Sammy should do to get out his slump either, because I'm no hitting coach and I definitely do not have 16 years of experience in the big leagues- the only experience I've got is 7 years of coach pitch, tee ball, and little league. Instead, I'll write about the slump itself, the rest of the team's performance during the slump, and how the slump fits into the big picture. Hopefully by then I will have calmed down, but then again, we'll see.

First, the numbers. The slugger is going through an absolutely pitiful slump, hitting .154 so far in August. He went hitless against the Giants. He has 6 hits, 3 of them home runs - no surprise - 10 strikeouts in 39 plate appearances, and of his 6 RBI, only 1 didn't come from a home run. His OPS this month is .668, lower than his slugging percentage alone during his best stretch of baseball in the middle of April. This slump is truly epic.

But how much is it affecting the team's performance? The Cubbies are a disappointing 6-4 in August considering the promising start they had, so let's break down the losses.

August 6th: 6-2 loss to the Giants- This one is pretty damning. The Cubs left 10 on base, which is an indicator more that the team isn't getting the job done, because one man can't be expected to hit all of them in. What about most? Sammy had opportunities to score 7 of those 10 men left on base and, well, he didn't. Instead, a strikeout, a foulout to first, a groundout, and a strikeout. Its also probably worth point out that 3 of those 7 left on base were Nomar (go Nomar!), but that's getting off track.

August 8th: 6-3 loss to the Giants- This loss was more of a team effort, since only 3 were left on base, but Sammy did his part too. In addition to going hitless, he grounded into a double play in the 4th, and instead of at least leaving Alou on base, he cleared them to make Ramirez's single to deep center - which probably would have driven in a run or two - worthless. The GIDP is never timely, but its effects were worse than usual in this situation.

August 10th: 8-6 loss to the Padres- Sammy did hit a home run here, and you can't fault him for his performance too much. This game clearly showed how a team that relies on the long ball can lose, even if they hit 6 solo shots in one game. One freaking game. OK, time to move on.

August 12th: 5-4 loss to the Padres- A ghastly performance: 4 strikeouts and a fielder's choice. While Sammy didn't help at all, he didn't do as much damage as you might think. He struck out with two on in the 1st, but Ramirez knocked them in anyway, so no big deal there. His only other opportunity was in the 9th with 2 out and Nomar (again) on first, and choked like only a slumper could, whiffing 3 straight times to send it to extra innings. Yeah, Sammy could have won the game, but so could a lot of other Cubs. They left 11 on base and once again rallied around Matt Clement to lose another low-scoring affair.

You could argue that Sammy lost the August 6th game all by himself pretty easily, but the rest aren't so clear cut. Yeah, he looked pretty awful in the August 12th loss - OK, really awful - but that wasn't a pretty game anyway. The Cubs didn't deserve to lose, leaving 8 fewer men on base than the Padres, but they didn't do much to deserve to win, either.

But what about the wins? If Sammy's responsible for one loss, maybe he made up for it somewhere. Sure enough he did, against the Rockies in an 11-8 slugfest. Sammy hit a 3-run dinger in the 7th to tie it up at 4, and while there were plenty more to be scored, he certainly did his part. They ended up winning by 3, and I think that's reason enough for this game to cancel out the loss he's responsible for.

So there we go. Sammy's the poster child of the Cubs' bipolar offense, and no one gets booed or cheered more when they strike out or go yard, but he hasn't been hurting them more than he's helping lately. It will be no coincidence that when he finds his stroke again the Cubs will surge, and until then all the Cubs need to do is hold onto the Wild Card. Remember, despite the 35-games-over-.500 archrivals that make the Cubs look silly in comparison, Sammy and the Cubs still have a playoff spot, and I can say without the Cubfan coming out in me that I think they'll keep it.

- posted by Mike J. @ 12:26 AM
|

We all know Sammy can't win or lose games by himself, but sometimes it sure seems like it. Here's a breakdown of his performance today-

1st AB- Strikeout on 3 pitches
2nd AB- Strikeout on 4 pitches
3rd AB- Strikeout on 4 pitches
4th AB- Groundout to shortstop, 2 pitches
5th AB- Strikeout on 4 pitches

Out of those 17 pitches, only 3 were balls and he made contact with 3, hitting only 1 of those into play. Do I need to say anything else? Its pretty obvious Sammy needs to either adjust his approach or Dusty needs to get him the hell out of the cleanup spot, because the only thing he's cleaning up right now is...well, I don't have anything clever, but he's not cleaning up at the plate, that's for sure.

The best thing that happened today (and I use the term very loosely) is that Clement didn't get saddled with the loss. He didn't let up a run through 5, and was actually in line for the win until it all went south. Blah.

- posted by Mike J. @ 7:05 PM
|

Today's the day for Matt Clement and the Cubs, who need this win to solidify their lead in the Wild Card race and to possibly turn Matt's luck around. Clement is coming off his worst start of the year - which actually wasn't that bad - giving up 6 ER over 5 innings to the Giants, but as usual the Cubs only provided 2 runs of support.

The Cubs will have to solve Jake Peavy this afternoon, who has won 3 in a row and given up only 4 ER in those games. He hasn't faced the Cubs batters all that much, but when he has they've faired pretty well against him, hitting 348/385/652 in 23 AB.

It's unseasonably chilly in Chicago this week with temperatures dipping into the 50s, and this unexpected important series feels more like October baseball than the sweltering stretch leading into September. The Cubs keep the Wild Card lead if they lose today, but they need this victory if they want to maintain any sort of momentum. If the Cubs do get to the playoffs, they'll most certainly have to get through the Cardinals, who are steamrolling their opponents and show no signs of slowing.

A slight cause for concern for the Cardinals fan would be Albert Pujols' plantar fasciitis, but he's already had it for 6 weeks now and if he remains careful, I can't see why this would slow him down this year. If he does go down, though, he'll be out for the season most likely, but then again losing one slugger out of six ain't that bad.

*Update, 2:00pm*

I did a little digging, and I found out that no other pitcher with such a good ERA has a worse lousy win-loss record to show for it than Matt Clement. Tom Glavine of the Mets (8-10, 2.92) and Randy Johnson of the D-Backs (11-10, 3.01) are close to tying Clement in the loss column, but you have to get down to Brandon Webb, also a D-Back, who's 28th in the NL in ERA to be worse (4-14, 3.96). What makes this even more frustrating is that the Cubs are the best team out of the three yet still can't give him the very little support that he needs.

As I write this the Cubs have already scored an early run against the Padres and its 1-0 in the bottom of the 2nd. Let's try and get a few more.

- posted by Mike J. @ 12:06 PM
|

It was a big weekend for the Cubs in a number of ways, and not all of them worked out so well. Let's start with the good first-

Greg Maddux recorded his 300th win. There's really not much else to be said about this milestone; the media woke up and realized what was happening in time to give the achievement its due. As a 9-year-old kid my heart was broken when they traded Maddux to the Braves back in 1992, and for a while I cheered for Atlanta as much as I did for the Cubbies. I couldn't have been happier when they reacquired him last offseason, and having found his groove finally, he can shoot for another 15-win season after notching his 300th.

That's about it for the good news. Now for the more pressing bad news-

Matt Clement loses, again. This guy cannot catch a break. Sure, he had his worst outing of the season on Friday, giving up 6 ER, but that isn't insurmountable, and the offense surely owes it to him to score some more runs. The worst part of it is that the Giants moved up Jason Schmidt a day, who continued to baffle Cubs batters even when he didn't have his best stuff. I said back on Thursday that the real test of the Cubs' resurgence would be if Clement won or not, and well, there we go. While things are looking much better for the Cubs lately, I won't remain convinced until the offense gets Clement out of this slump of his, because his ERA is just too low to have such a bad win-loss record.

The Cubs' defense was in tatters Sunday night. Aramis loses a fly ball in the sun and lets a run in. No one covers third on an easy groundout play in the seventh, and Pedro Feliz waltzes to third and ends up scoring. Farnsworth helps out the baserunners on a throwing error to first, leaving two men in scoring position with no outs in the 8th. Mix these with the first outing by Kerry Wood in 155 tries where he doesn't record a single strikeout, and there's plenty of reason why the Cubs lost. Still, it was a close game until the Farnsworth error and the Giants were playing great baseball, so there's not much else to say.



After a pleasing 4-2 road trip that was made even better by poor performances by the Padres and Giants, who went 1-5 and 3-3 respectively in the same period, the Cubs find themselves 2 games ahead in the Wild Card race. They have a big series against San Diego at home this week, where if they win 2 of 3 they'll be in good shape, and if they win only 1 they'll still be all right.

Clement will get another chance at a win this series, and it'll be against - surprise - an excellent pitcher in Jake Peavy, who's 8-3 in 16 starts this year and has a very solid 2.16 ERA. His strikeout/walk ratio isn't that hot at 92/34, but he's got good stuff and the Cubs will need to step it up a notch to knock him off.

The other Cub to watch this series is Swingin' Sammy Sosa, who was 2-24 on the road trip and didn't get a single hit against the Giants in 12 AB. Of those 12 AB, he struck out 7 times. Ugh. You can only hope he decides to change something about his approach soon so he gets himself out of this slump, but it is nice to know that the Cubs won 4 of 6 on the road basically without him.

- posted by Mike J. @ 3:36 PM
|

I'm going to allow myself some unrestrained optimism today and point out all the things the Cubs are doing right lately. I'll get to why things are the way they are after the list, so here we go-

Signs that all cylinders are beginning to fire

1) You come back to win 3 straight games, and then followed it up with a 5-1 victory. Three games with big innings helped the Cubs come back to beat the Phillies to win that series at home, then take the first two against the Rockies before shutting them down in game 3. Most of the year has been spent wallowing in hopelessness as the Cubs trail going into the late innings, but now with a lineup that has virtually no holes, scoring runs doesn't seem as difficult as it did before.

2) You bat around 4 times in 4 games. Since the Cubs gave Alex Gonzalez the boot in favor of someone who could actually hit, they have sent all 9 batters to the plate in an inning 4 times. A few weeks ago I railed on the Cubs for their all-or-nothing approach to offense, but it seems that now the Cubs have begun to master the invaluable skill of stringing hits together. Combine that with their home run power, and suddenly a lot more runs are scored.

3) Mark Prior pitches 6 solid innings of shutout ball. Prior hasn't recaptured his form entirely since returning from the DL and working past his tender elbow, but he sure looked sharp today, striking out 8 and accumulating a pitch count of 108, his highest yet this year. The rotation looks like everyone expected it to in spring training, and while its a little late, at least it's here.

4) You climb to a season-high 12 games over .500. The Cubbies finally surpassed their previous high of 11 games over, which they reached by sweeping the White Sox back in the beginning of July. They're way behind the Cardinals still, but they go head to head against the Giants and the Padres over the next 7 days, and can give themselves a considerable lead if they continue the hot streak.

5) Your pitcher drives in Paul Bako for an insurance run in the 9th. Up by 4 going into the top of the 9th against the Rockies today, I didn't expect much from the Cubs, who added 2 runs in the 7th. Instead, with two outs the Cubs weakest hitter in Paul Bako steps to the plate and hits a two-out infield single. Exactly 1 pitch later, pitcher Glendon Rusch doubles to left-center and drives Bako in to help pad his lead. Even the two weakest hitting guys on the team (I mean the pitcher's position, not Rusch specifically) are scoring runs, and that's the icing on the cake.


Now what's the reason for all of this? I won't lie and say Nomar had nothing to do with it, because anytime you add a 5-time All Star with a couple of batting titles to your roster without trading away a significant portion of your team, not only will he provide (3 RBI in 4 games), the rest of the team gets energized, as shown by the rallies, bat-arounds, and the 4 straight wins. You can't really disregard the fact that your best pitcher a year ago, Mark Prior, is finally healthy as well, and the rotation is finally ready. I believe Prior would have made the same type of start today without the addition of Nomar: would the Cubs have still won? That's up for debate, but it shows that the addition of Nomar plus a sharp, healthy starting rotation are two factors that are playing well off one another so far.

BUT, I won't get ahead of myself too much. The real test comes tomorrow, when Matt Clement takes the mound. Clement has gotten the worst run support of all Cub starters, and if the Cubs can rally behind Matt on the mound, they'll be in excellent shape.

- posted by Mike J. @ 5:07 PM
|

What started out looking like an old-fashioned Coors Field shootout last night ended up becoming quite the pitching duel as the Cubs prevailed over the Rockies 5-3. Despite scoring 8 runs combined in the first 2 innings the two teams held each other scoreless the rest of the game thanks to some gutsy pitching by Kerry Wood and surprisingly Jeff Fassero. With this win last night and some help from the Phillies the Cubs have now moved into a tie with San Diego for the NL wild card spot. I know I wasn't alone in thinking that the 5-3 lead the Cubs had established in the second inning would not hold up but shockingly neither team could manage a single run after that. Jeff Fassero settled down after his rough 2nd inning, in which he was likely one more batter away from being pulled, and proceeded to set down 11 straight Cubs before Kerry Wood reached on a single in the 6th. Not to be outdone, Kerry Wood also rebounded after his tough first inning to hold the Rockies scoreless in his next seven innings, giving the Cubs a strong eight inning, three run effort.

I haven't been able to research this idea yet and it will likely fall on it's face when I do, but it seems to me that the Cub pitchers are having a very tough time with the first inning of games. From what I observed it seems like Cub pitchers rarely get out of the first inning easily, often using up to thirty pitches and giving up a couple of runs. Yesterday was no different as Kerry Wood struggled in the first , giving up three runs on a Todd Hilton homer and a Larry Walker triple while throwing 24 pitches. I don't know if this is a trend, a problem, or maybe just a fluke but in the past 6 wins Cubs pitching has surrendered at least one run in 4 of the 6 first innings. Even in the game in which carols Cambrian shut out the Brewers in eight innings of work, carols still needed 31 pitches to get out of a jam in the first inning. This phenomenon could be the result of being too hyped up or maybe it is a more serious problem in that they are not warming up enough before the game. Either way, I hope this is just a fluke because it makes a team's job much harder when they are forced to play down early in the game.

I know it is way too early to pass judgment but I am enjoying Corey Patterson's short stint as the leadoff man. I know deep down that he probably does not have the makings of a true leadoff hitter as he is way too impatient and strikes out way too much, but it seems to be working right now. Patterson was 1-5 last night which at face value does not seem great for a lead off hitter but he showed some patience at the plate and it was his steal that resulted in the go ahead run when Nomar Garciaparra dumped a ball into right field. If Corey can take a few more pitches and get his first bunt attempt into play, I believe he would be a good leadoff hitter for this team. Too often he messes up his first bunt attempt at which point he is already down a strike and the infield is in and waiting for him. If Corey can adapt to his new role he would be the speedy, base stealing threat that the Cubs need at the top of the order.

Tonight Carlos Zambrano takes on Jamey Wright in game two of the series. The Cubs hitters seem to love hitting at Coors, though I'm not sure what hitter wouldn't love it, and hopefully they can provide some good run support for Carlos tonight. A win tonight sets the table for a potential sweep and keeps the Cubs rolling on an all important NL West trip. Hopefully the Cubs will take care of business and win tonight behind a strong effort from Zambrano.

- posted by Mike R. @ 11:36 AM
|

In the fallout of the 4-team deal for Nomar, Theo Epstein has been called all types of things- stupid, prudent, and even fooled. There's been speculation that Nomar made his Achilles heel seem to be in worse shape than it was in order to be traded at the deadline, causing some to think the Red Sox had been snookered. Nomar, who before the trade was concerned about how much rest he would need in August for his heel, supposedly said it was "great" after he was traded, and blah blah blah. Its all soap opera-style news coming out of Boston, but underneath all of this there are two truths that need to be addressed:

1) Nomar's Achilles heel is not 100%, and
2) Nomar's ego is well on its way to a full recovery.

It would be silly to think that Nomar will be able to play every game the rest of the season, and he's said so himself. He came back before he was 100% because he didn't need to be healthy to perform, and that will take its toll the remainder of the season. Jim Hendry knew this when he made the trade, and there's no doubt that we'll see Ramon Martinez fill in every so often while Nomar gets some rest. Its not ideal, but its still a major upgrade over Alex Gonzalez (who is supposedly loved by Cubs fans. It seems like everywhere I hear about him, I hear about how everyone in Chicago was just in love with him and thought he was great. Where was I in all of this? Who actually liked this guy, especially after the NLCS last year?).

It also seems pretty safe to say that Nomar's desire to play will also increase rapidly now that he's left Beantown. The Red Sox and the Cubs have a lot in common, but not their media coverage. Compared to Boston it'll be a veritable lovefest in Chicago for Nomar, who has already been vaulted to near the top of the Cubs superstar ladder. Besides the media, every Cub fan knows that they got something very special at the deadline, and they let Nomar know it at every at-bat on Sunday. Even in The Cubby Bear, where I parked myself for the 1st inning on Sunday to hopefully witness history in the making for Greg Maddux, Nomar practically received a standing O as he came to the plate. Its hard to imagine him not feeling at home, or at least welcomed, in an atmosphere like this, and if he can bat .321 while he's sulking, I'd love to see what he can do when he's motivated.

OK, enough about Nomar (at least for this post). The Cubbies go to Colorado to face the Rockies, and considering the high that they must be on right now, they're in good shape to grab the wild card before heading to San Francisco, where they'll face a tough team also in contention for the extra playoff spot. If the Cubs can't string together some hits, they'll be able to rely on the long ball more than usual while they're at Coors Field, as they face off against a 47-58 club that is having its usual pitching woes. Only Arizona has given up more runs than the Rockies, who have allowed 608 this year and have a major league worst team ERA of 5.60.


----

By the way, has anyone else noticed that the Cubs now have 3 starters with recent Achilles' Heel problems? This sort of thing would have made me nervous at the beginning of the year, but after all the injuries so far, it seems more like trivia than anything.

- posted by Mike J. @ 4:54 PM
|