The Cubs finally scored some runs today, unfortunately they only scored two. Today the Cubs were swept by the San Diego Padres, who have won 9 straight games. After being swept earlier in the week by the Cardinals, the Cubs ran into a buzz-saw in San Diego. The Padres hitting is not great, but it was good enough against the Cubs. It was the Padres pitching however that won them this series. Today, Chris Young made the Cubs hitters look foolish allowing only 2 runs on 4 hits over 7 innings. Young does not throw hard (Mid-80's) but our hitters looked as if they were not picking up the ball clearly out of his hand today.
Ted Lilly started for the Cubs today and was off to a good start, unfortunately he got into trouble in the 5th, 6th, and 7th innings. Lilly's line: 6.1IP, 5ER, 8H, 2BB, 4K. He also made a couple of bad plays in the field, he could not field a bunt, and later threw a suicide-bunted ball over Geovany Soto. Lilly's fielding has been awful all season and last season even, this is not acceptable. Aaron Heilman came into the game in the 7th with a man on third-base and one out. He got a strikeout, then intentionally walked Adrian Gonzalez (and rightfully so), only to then give up a 3R-HR to Kevin Kouzmanoff. Heilman is a joke, everytime he comes in he allows runs. I thought I heard Len Kasper say that Heilman has come in with 14 men on base this season and that 8 of them had scored, not including the inherited runner who scored today. Maybe Heilman needed the work, but if I were Lou Piniella, I would stick with Angel Guzman as my bridge guy from here on. Kouzmanoff has been slumping all season, but not today, he was 2-4 2B, HR, 4RBI. Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune wrote that Kouzmanoff, a third baseman, was on the trading block. From what I saw today, the Cubs should look to trade for this guy.
The Cubs offense was absent again today combining for only 4 hits and two runs. The two runs came when Reed Johnson hit a 2R-HR in the 7th inning. This was good to see from Reed, he had been struggling lately at the plate and has not shown much power this season. Johnson started in Center-field in place of Fukudome who had the day off. The only other Cub hits were from Milton Bradley, Mike Fontenot, and Bobby Scales, all singles. The lack of power from the Cubs hitters is a serious problem. The last time I remember the Cubs offense looking this bad was in 2006 when Derrek Lee was out for the season and we had clowns like Phil Nevin playing first-base. By the way, the Cubs missed the playoffs in 2006. Today Lee was a late scratch from the line-up because he was sick. This was too bad for the Cubs, he has been their hottest hitter of late, he even hit a long home run on Saturday. Micah Hoffpauir played in place of Lee and was 0-4 and fouled out on a 3-0 pitch. Hoffpauir looks like he has been pressing lately and has been hitting a lot of shallow pop-ups, I hope he finds his stroke again soon. Hoffpauir looked bad today, but Alfonso Soriano has looked bad all week, today he was 0-4 and watched his average drop to .257. Soriano was incredibly impatient at the plate today, swinging at the first pitch at least two times, and making outs. He needs to get hot soon, usually the Cubs offense goes, as Soriano goes.
The Cubs have now lost 7 straight and are back to .500 at 21-21. They return home for a three-game series with the Pittsburgh Pirates, starting at 7:05 pm Monday night. Ryan Dempster, who has been improving as of late, is pitching for the Cubs. Left-hander, Paul Maholm is pitching for the Pirates. Maholm is 3-1 this season with a 5.91 ERA. The Cubs hitters should hit this guy, hard. Unfortunately the Cubs have not hit anybody hard in over a week, hopefully returning home will get them back on track. I expect to see more righties in the starting line-up tomorrow, hopefully Lee is ready to play, and Lou will likely ride Johnson's hot bat. Plus the Cubs have a secret weapon tomorrow: ME! I am going to the game and am 3-0 on the season. Not to mention that Lee has homered in two of the games I have attended this year. Hopefully I can continue my winning streak and the Cubs can start one.
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