The Cubs Season is likely over and so is my summer

Last night the Cubs were not trailing for 8.2 innings and still found a way to lose. Kevin Gregg was called upon to pick up the save in the 9th protecting a 1-0 lead. Once again he could not get the job done as he completely derailed: 0.2IP, 2H (a game-tying double and a walk-off HR), 4ER, 2BB. This was his 6th blown save of the season and his 5th loss. With the Cardinals victory last night, the Cubs are now 6GB in the Division. Gregg cost his team the game last night and it is not like this is anything new either. Just two weeks ago, he blew saves against the Marlins on back-to-back days! His biggest problem is allowing HR's. I told my friends at the bar last night "At least he won't give up any homers, this stadium is too hard to hit one out of at night." Man do I sound like a dick, not only did Gregg allow a HR, he allowed a BOMB, and to a guy I have never heard of or seen before in my life: Kyle Blanks. It was bad enough he blew the save, but to allow him to remain in there to try and get out of the inning was just stupid. In my opinion, Gregg should be removed from the closer role effective immediately and replaced by Carlos Marmol (no matter how bad he looks some nights, I will still take him) or Angel Guzman.

Furthermore, it is not responsible of me to only blame Gregg for last night's loss. The Cubs had opportunities to score more than the one run they did, on an Aramis Ramirez RBI-Single. The Cubs were 1-8 with RISP and left 10 men on base (sound familiar). The biggest culprit last night was Mike Fontenot, who could not get the job done with the bases loaded on a full count to end the top half of the 6th inning. Why did this piss me off more than anything else a Cub hitter had done all night? Well, for starters, Fontenot is hitting .225. I would much rather see Alfonso Soriano pinch hit there, in a 0-0 game with the bases loaded, and then use Jeff Baker to play the field. I know Lou Piniella would have to waste two players there, but the game was on the line, and you could tell just by the look on Fonty's face that he was scared. He is nice little player, but I hope the Cubs have no plans to bring him back next season, the guy just can not hit the baseball! In fairness he did make one hell of a play to start a key double play in the bottom half of the 6th, but Andres Blanco can do the same thing.

Additionally, the Cubs wasted some pretty good performances from last night. Ted Lilly in his return from the DL did a hell of a job: 6IP, 0R, 4H, BB, 4K on 70 pitches (he had a pitch count, better safe than sorry with a guy coming off of a shoulder injury). Ramirez and Derrek Lee each had two hits last night, Lee even legged out a triple, and scored the team's only run. John Grabow pitched an impressive 1.1 innings last night and Carlos Marmol was as sharp as ever in his 2/3 of an inning.

Last night it hit me, the season is likely over. There is just something about this team: bad luck, lack of timing, lack of talent, lack of managing? I don't know what it is, but I had a real feeling after that game that this season was over for us, barring a complete and unlikely collapse by the Cardinals, or us jumping 3 teams in the Wild-Card race.

I watched last night's game at a new bar as well. My friends and I went to Tavern on Milwaukee, North, and Damen, in Wicker Park. Not my favorite bar (especially past 12am on weekends) but the place was nearly empty last night other than our group. They did have a good deal: $2 PBR bottles, which they have all the time, but do not advertise because they like to rip people off. The service was below average. The bartender who was probably younger than the entire group I went with grilled us on our ID's and did not seem to want us there. The TVs were nice, but the sound was turned off in favor of "Chick Music" according to Steve Twardowski. Also, we went there with my friend Nick's pilot-buddies, and two out of the three totally suck. One of them is a euro-guy who thinks he can walk on water and only talks about him making money, spending money, and how awesome he thinks he is. Despite how awesome he thinks he is, I have never seen him with a woman, and I know for a fact he got peed on by a stripper just a few weeks ago, Oh, and he is bald. The other douche was from St.Louis and just sat there mocking us for being Cubs fans, etc. Enough said, I tried to ignore him all night, literally, and he got mad at me for not laughing at his joke (it wasn't funny?). The only way I got him to stop talking was to bring up the St. Louis Rams. All in all, not the worst place to watch a game, a step up over Nick's Beer Garden, but unless you live in the area, I would not recommend going there.

Up Next: Cubs vs Padres at 9:05pm on WGN. Ryan Dempster (6-6, 4.23 ERA) vs Cesar Carrillo (0-1, 30.86 ERA). Note to Dumpster: The Padres Suck! And apparently so does Carrillo, if you can not pick up the win tonight, you are officially the worst! Every time Dempster pitches it seems like his ERA goes up and so does his loss total. Hopefully tonight he can change that and dominate a weak line-up, other than Adrian Gonzalez. I know nothing about Carrillo other than he has had a bad outing (looking at the ERA), hopefully the Cubs can tee-off on him as well.

There will be no morning post tomorrow, I have to go to my Grad School Orientation at UIC at 8 am. This signals the beginning of the end of a great summer. Also, as I was writing this, it was brought to my attention that Kevin Gregg has been demoted from the closer role, NICE!

Go Cubs! Rock out Chicago, Diet Pepsi, Uh Huh!