How about those Cubbies?!?

Another "fabulous" outing by Neal Cotts tonight. Lefties are now hitting .333 with 3 HRs after this knucklehead gave up a 2-run bomb to Nate McLouth which gave the lead back to the Pirates. So three runs given up in the inning on 4 hits although 3 went for extra bases.

So I'm listening to the game on the radio and I just heard Ronny talking about the Pirates having 2 lefties in their rotation and three more in their pen. Could Hendry not get his "friends" the Bucs to trade one of them? Remember the Bucs "gave" Hendry and the Cubs Aramis Ramirez and Randall Simon in 2003.

So the Cubs FINALLY score some runs tonight, but get ZERO pitching! How about getting on the same page guys?!?

What was up with Reed Johnson batting 4th tonight? The guy has single syllable RBIs (8) for the season. Was he really the best option? It certainly wouldn't have been better with Micah batting 4th tonight. I guess I was WAY wrong on this guy as he didn't take as much advantage of his opportunity as he could/should have - left 6 on base by himself today.

Did anyone else feel better having Aaron Miles up there with 2 on, down by 2 in the bottom of the 9th than Mark DeRosa? BRUTAL trade which will only get worse if he ends up in Milwaukee. His 30 RBIs for a last place Indians team would lead the Cubs by 5 over our lead-off hitter, Soriano.

Well, the skid has now reached 8 and the Cubs are now below .500 for the first time since the end of April. They are 5 games out in 4th place behind Dusty's Reds. That says it all as far as I'm concerned.

Lefty-Lefty Advantage...for who?

Isn't there supposed to be some kind of advantage for a left-handed pitcher against a left-handed hitter? I'm not a big proponent of this philosophy which is one of the big reasons I wasn't at all impressed with Hendry's off-season. All he did was make the line-up more left-handed, but not necessarily better. That's not what this post is about though...

What is the point of a lefty in the pen if he CANNOT get left-handed hitters out...EVER? San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez had a HUGE series against the Cubs when they were in town a couple weeks ago. He hit 4 HRs and drove in all but 3 of the Padres runs in that series which the Cubs still swept. However, since that series Gonzalez had gone 3-for-25 and was 0-for-3 until coming up in the bottom of the 7th. So Lou brings in the lefty...the only one we have in the pen...Neal Cotts. On a 1-2 pitch, Cotts throws a 92mph 4-seam fastball right down the middle and Gonzalez hit a BOMB to the opposite field. Nobody hits HRs in Petco, but Gonzalez "miraculously" defied the odds as a lefty and hit it 30 ft farther than D-Lee's short-of-the-warning-track fly in the top of the 8th. Lefties are hitting .294 off our lefty with 6 BBs and 2 HRs. The 6 BBs are just an absolute killer although the bombs aren't helpful either. Lefties have a .500 OBA and slugging .467 which is nearly 100 points higher than against righties. Those numbers held true again tonight - 2 lefties, 1-for-2, 1 HR; 2 righties, 0-for-2.

GET COTTS OUT OF HERE - throw the Jeff Fasero tarp over this guy Lou!