Was last night's loss to the lowly and ultra-pathetic, Dusty-led Reds the most embarrassing loss of the season? A 4-hit complete game shut-out by a 32-year old making not only his second start of the season but second start of his career...REALLY? Lehr earned his first W since 2006! Boys, we HAVE to do better than that. I know you can't win them all, but that one you HAD to win. Now the Cubs go to visit a red-hot Colorado Rockies team for 4 games only to come home and face the defending World Series champion Phillies. How can you lose that game last night knowing you have an off day today and then 7 against tough opponents? It would seem the boys in blue took their off day a little too early.
This guy Jason Lehr was topping out on the radar gun at 85mph and yet, the Cubs just couldn't figure him out. Bob Brenly was simply amazed at how ineffective the Cubs bats really were against a guy throwing a straight fastball at 85. I just kept waiting for them to kick it into gear...surely the second time through the lineup would be better...OK, how about the third time? One extra base hit all night and that was Rich Harden's bloop double (I still say he's the fastest Cub). Soriano beat out an infield hit off Lehr's glove only to get picked off as he wandered off 1st base with his hands on his hips. Lehr looked over there like 3-4 times before whipping it over there so I don't get what Soriano was doing. Personally, I would have sent him to the locker room after that and try to get some kind of reaction or spark from the rest of the team. But, nope, Grandpa Lou just sent his lazy butt back out to LF.
It wasn't like the Reds were crushing the ball all over the park. They had only 1 more than the Cubs 4 hits, but took advantage on the bases stealing 3-of-4 on the night including ANOTHER missed tag by Fontenot at 2B. I would have yanked him off the field too as the throw beat Phillips by at least a full second.
It was "nice" (i.e. NOT nice) to see Aaron Miles back in the lineup after being on the DL since June 20th. WHY is this guy still here? Oh ya, another fabulous off-season move by Hendry. Wasn't this guy supposed to semi-replace Mark DeRosa? Not so much - he's hitting .198 with 4 RBIs in 47 games. Yuck! Is Andres Blanco really hurt or was that just some move to bring Miles back? Cut Miles and bring back Blanco - at least he's young and has a future. Miles is TERRIBLE (insert your best Charles Barkley impersonation).
This was also a prime opportunity to jump into 1st place by a full game as the Cardinals lost yesterday too. Let's hope the Cubs pull it together and finish up this road trip at .500 or better.
Looking back now, it seems this game was the turning point in the season. Check the numbers...
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in this blog, the Cubs had a chance to pull into 1st place by themselves with a win here; instead they remained tied with a lackluster effort against a terrible Reds team. They let that chance slip through their fingers and have lost an astounding 8 games in the standings since this fateful loss going 5-12 in that time frame while the Cardinals have taken advantage by going 13-4.
The season is all but over for the Cubs who are seriously running out of time. Sure everyone remembers what the Rockies did in 2007 as they were 7 games behind as late as September 10th that year before going on the historic run to the NL Pennant. Don't forget that they had a lot of "help" from the Padres where I don't think the Tony LaRussa/Albert Pujols led Cardinals are going to fold like the Padres did in 2007. I also don't think this club as constructed by Jim Hendry and run by Grandpa Lou has it in them to do what it takes to make a run like that. Unless Lou goes "young" with Fuld and Fox in the outfield and keeps Miles out of the game, they just have no chance. Fuld has proven he'll risk life and limb to simply catch a ball and Fox is straight-up productive while Soriano and Bradley just aren't getting it done. Is Grandpa Lou ready to make those changes and earn his contract option for next season? I doubt it.