The Cubs stink, lose to Twins 7-4

The Cubs looked terrible today, enough said. Randy Wells who has been outstanding all season, decided to have his worst career start: 3.2IP 4ER, 7H, 2K, BB on 78 pitches. I missed the first 5 innings of this game so I have no comments on Wells' performance, but is seems as if he sucked. The Cubs bullpen was not very sharp either, as Jason Waddell, Aaron Heilman, and David Patton each allowed one run apiece in relief. Patton gets a pass however because he only pitches once every three weeks, because Lou Piniella forgets he is on the roster.

The offense was once again awful. In the bottom of the sixth the Cubs finally got something going and with the bases loaded Milton Bradley hit a rocket off the right field wall, driving in two runs. Derrek Lee then hit a grounder to third and Bradley was caught in no-man's land and tagged out, an inexcusable base running error. The Cubs as a team seem to make these errors frequently. Bradley in the next half inning lost a ball in the sun which allowed another Twins run to score. In the 8th inning, Bradley caught a Joe Mauer (who is the man) sac-fly and thought it was the end of the inning, and then threw the ball into the right field bleachers. This was unbelievable, how could Uncle Milty not known that was only the second out? Nevertheless it did not cost us any runs. Despite his blunders in the outfield today, Bradley was the best hitter we had out there, he was 2-4 2B, 2RBIs. He would have had another hit in the 8th if it were not for a diving Delmon Young catch to rob him of an RBI single. Derrek Lee was the only other Cub who did anything at the plate also going 2-4 with 2 RBIs. Geovany Soto (who is a real problem), Ryan Theriot, and Fukudome combined to go 0-12.

People are jumping all over Milton Bradley for his performance today, but without him, the Cubs probably would not have scored any runs. My buddy, Dan, said "We should throw him into Lake Michigan". Others like Bleedcubbieblue.com's Al Yellon, say he is not the bat we needed and that he prefered Adam Dunn. Well, hindsight is 20-20 my friend. Yes, Dunn is having a much better year offensively, but he is a butcher in the outfield (and at any position for that matter) and would have made the same mistakes in the field that Bradley is making. Say what you will about Bradley, but he looked good at the plate today. Lou said two days ago, that he thought he figured out what was wrong with Bradley's swing, Bradley looked locked in at the plate today. Bradley had a bad day in the field, deal with it, he also was the only player on our team who hit a ball hard today! I am still confident that he can turn this season around, if only to stick it to all the nay-sayers out there! What we really need is a new infielder. At times this team looks so bad, I am not even sure if the return of Aramis Ramirez will save us.

What really upsets me about this team is Lou. He continues to play Aaron Miles, who is incapable of hitting anything but ground-outs and soft fly outs. It is seriously time to get rid of Miles, he can blame it on his shoulder, but the fact remains, he is lousy. I like the fact that Lou did have the stones to play Alfonso Soriano at second in the 9th and Micah Hoffpauir in left. Hell with defense, we need the offense at this point. I never want to see Miles in the line-up again. The Cubs' lack of focus should fall on Lou, this team looks lacadasical, often. Lou does not even seem to care, he should have taken Bradley out of the game after throwing the ball in the stands just to send a message. This team lacks discipline and here they sit at .500. Maybe this is just an overpaid .500 baseball team?

Up next: Early game tomorrow, at 12:05pm. I was actually offered tickets but had to decline. Rich Harden (4-2, 4.74 ERA) vs Anthony Swarzak (1-2, 5.23). I do not know what to expect from Harden he has been out for awhile, but he is rested. I expect to get about 6IP and 2ER with 8Ks from him, which should be good enough for a win. Especially since we are facing Swarzak, who sounds like a character from A Few Good Men. Looking at Swarzak's numbers he looks like a bum, either we crush him or he shuts us out, we will see tomorrow.