Mayday!

The Cubs have resumed playing like they did in May, finding spectacular ways to lose.

In the last 24 hours, Ryan Dempster has two losses from allowing five 11th-inning runs. In the insult-to-injury department, Dusty Baker let Dempster bat for himself in the top half of the 11th today with two out and two on (he struck out) before giving up three in the bottom half for the L.

Swept by the Pirates... ugh... if there's any consolation, perhaps the worst record in the National League will be sufficient to bring some changes to town for 2007. They still hold a 1-1/2 game advantage over Pittsburgh after the sweep, six ahead of the Royals.

Welcome to the Cubs

After two starts, Ryan O'Malley has received his official initiation to the Cubs.

His first trip to the D.L.

Notes and Such

Any radio listeners out there stick it out through the end of the game last night? I found it amusing that the post-game show after 18 innings was brought to you by Marathon.

I'm surprised this isn't making news anywhere else, but the Cubs-Astros singleheader wasn't even the only 18-inning game in the National League last night. So why was I Gamecasting Arizona and Colorado through 18 innings, after five-plus hours of watching Cub relievers squeak through extra-inning after extra-inning that all seemed to involve Astro hitters getting on base and being stranded there?

'Cause it ain't over yet, folks.

The Cubs are the only NL team that's not leading a division to have won more than half of its last 10 games. They've gained between one and three games on everyone in the NL Wild Card race. Seeing as how 10 teams are within six games of the lead in the NL, they simply can't all win. And if the teams at the top can cool off, the Cubs could slide into that pack in a manner of days. If the Cubs continue this year's domination of the Cardinals, that might come sooner than later.

Here's something to consider: The Cubs now have the NL Central's best inter-divisional record. Yes, they've been pounded by the East, the West and the AL, but they're also seven over .500 against the division they face in most of their remaining games. And there's still a mathematical possibility that a sub-.500 team can walk off with a playoff spot.

Meanwhile the newest of the new kids, Ryan O"Malley, is making his MLB debut this afternoon, scoreless through three innings. He got the call when the Cubs placed Scott Eyre on the 15-day DL. Eyre tweaked a hammie while chasing after a dribbler to the right side. I wish someone had told him at the beginning of the season, "Scottie, any ball hit to the first-base side, don't leave the mound." A strategic nightmare, to be sure, but it would have saved the Cubs a lot of trouble this year.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

The Dodgers caught the Reds last night in the NL Wild Card race.

Let’s all take a look at the Dodgers for a moment. On July 26^th, they were six and a half games back. Ten wins later they’re tied for the top at a mere two over .500, 57-55.

Regardless of how badly a team performs, and LA lost 13 of 14 coming out of the All-Star break, pretty much every team goes into a winning streak of some length, where enough key guys play some of their best ball of the season at the same time, where the bats explode if the starter struggles and you get enough runs to get by when he doesn’t.

While the Dodgers were making headway, the Cubs gained four games themselves at the back end of the race. They closed a 5½-game deficit to two on the next spot up, held then as now by the Nationals, and crept up into single-digits on the top spot. Even on their off-day Monday they picked up ground on four teams, and stand four and a half games from a cluster where whomever has the best September will probably take the Wild Card.

Now look not at my mini-protest, but at the measly five games it stands for. There’s talent here, enough buried under the second base controversy and Wood and Prior and Maddux and Lee and slow starts by off-season acquisitions getting used to Wrigley Field for this ballclub to roll off seven or eight wins in a row at some point over 162 games, whether it starts at game 40 or game 110. Even with the rookies staggering through 2006 like newborn colts, enough of them can stay on their feet for the offensive veterans and as strong a front two pitchers as may exist in the NL to get hot behind them and run off a string.

Forget about playing .667 ball the rest of the way to get to .500, and digest this in small bites. Run off seven or eight in a row and that number starts to shrink. Run off seven or eight in a row, and just from all those teams facing each other, you will make major headway on three or four or five teams in that race.

The Cubs still face seven of the nine teams above them, and only the two at the top are even .500 ballclubs. We’re not exactly talking about Detroit or New York or Boston here. Or even the White Sox, Twins or Blue Jays.

Things may have seemed bleak for the last three months, but the Cubs are one hot streak away from getting right back in the thick of things, and this would be a good time to be in one after taking the last two games against a Pirates team the Cubs face seven more times. Who do the Cubs open with tonight? The Brewers. The Brewers minus Carlos Lee (with replacement Kevin Mench mired in a 1-for-17 slump after changing leagues), minus ¾ of their starting infield and possibly minus Ben Sheets.

Mark Prior’s return to form is like making a major mid-season acquisition without giving anything up. Derrek Lee will do the same in a few weeks. Somewhere out there is Wade Miller, making rehab starts. Rich Hill seems to have regained the form that dominated the PCL this season. And Carlos Zambrano may be the best starting pitcher in the league.

Don’t put away the bicarb and Pepto just yet. This might get interesting.

Tortoises and Hares

Dave van Dyck suggests the White Sox should be more concerned about the AL Wild Card than the Central Division title. D'ya think?

The Sox are only a game closer to the first place Tigers (-9) than the Cubs are to the NL Wild Card-leading Reds (-10). And Ozzie Guillen's still thinking about first place. Good luck with that. Perhaps he should be more concerned that the Twins are right on his tail.

Speaking of the NL Wild Card race, the Dodgers, after losing 13-of-14 coming out of the All-Star break, have won nine straight going back to before the Maddux-for-Izturis trade. They're, surprise, the only team to have gained ground on the Cubs in the last ten games.

The West-leading Padres, meanwhile, have split six games since acquiring Todd Walker (5-of-14, .357, but with only one run scored and no RBIs since the trade). I still contend that the NL West will see several more lead changes before the regular season draws to a close, but if LA can put on a run, that's one less team to worry about in the Wild Card race.

It ain't over, folks, not yet.

Start Me Up

It was nice to see Mark Prior finally get his first win of the season today. It wasn't the dominating Prior who earned no decision despite throwing hitless ball in his second-to-last start going into today's game, but a win is a win is a win.

Matt Murton collected two more hits, including a homer, nudging him closer to a .300 average which seemed out of reach at the end of June. He's batting .533 in August after hitting .360 in July, and has only one hitless game with 3 or more at-bats since the middle of June.

Let's just hope Murton isn't named Player of the Month. Cub hurlers have treated the pitching equivalent of that honor like a curse this year, as Greg Maddux went into a death spiral in May and Carlos Zambrano got hammered in his first August start. Still, one would have trouble finding another fifth-place team in the history books with two Pitchers of the Month through July.

With the Cub win, they remain 11 games behind Cincinnati in the Wild Card race. Stay tuned...

The Audience is Listening?

In my last post, I mentioned that Michael Barrett could potentially give the Cubs back-to-back batting titles. Today, Carrie Muskat, the fine reporter for cubs.com, mentioned the same tidbit on the official website.

So if you're reading, hi, Carrie! If you ever need a research assistant to lighten the load for Ed Hartig...

Cubs Winsome, Lose Some

The Cubs split two against Arizona today, splitting the four-game set to close the season series as Cub rookies started both ends of a doubleheader for the first time since 1978.

The kids were alright, more or less. Juan Mateo won his major league debut in the nightcap. Matt Murton drove in five runs on a MLB-record-tying four doubles to raise his average to .297. Carlos Marmol struggled through the first two innings of game 1, throwing 66 pitches, but only needed 13 to get through the next two. He drops to 4-5, not bad considering the Cubs' overall record. Ryan Theriot collected three hits, including an RBI double in the first game, and Angel Pagan added some excitement by scoring on a squeeze bunt by Henry Blanco, one of three runs he scored in game 2.

There were highlights from the veterans as well, with Michael Barrett going 3-for-4 with a walk in the opener and raising his batting average to .338, still short of the at-bats needed to qualify for second place in the NL, where a strong last two months could give the Cubs back-to-back batting champs for the first time since Bill Madlock did it twice 30 years ago. Phil Nevin went 2-for-2 with a pair of walks in the nightcap and scored twice. Juan Pierre picked up four hits in 10 at-bats on the day. Scott Eyre threw a scoreless inning and a third in game 2 to drop his ERA to a sparkling 2.01.

But there are still some puzzlers in Cubbieland. For example, what better way to help Ronny Cedeno make the announced shift to second base than by starting him at shortstop in game 2, where he made an error today? Even with the team parting ways with Jerry Hairston Jr. and Tony Womack, the Cubs still have a glut of second-basemen as Theriot and Neifi Perez got the starts today.

The return of Mark Grace to Wrigley Field as a Diamondbacks broadcaster makes me hope he returns to the organization someday. Gracie sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the second game, breaking the visiting-team taboo by saying root, root, root for the Cubbies. He always has been, and always will be, one of us.

In the post-sing interview on the TV side, Grace had good things to say about Murton's approach at the plate. Makes sense, as Murton's more of a Grace-style hitter than a basher. With Gene Clines still holding the spot as hitting coach, it's time the Cubs started picking their coaches from the next generation of ex-Cubs, and Mark Grace knows a thing or two about hitting at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs have been abysmal in day games. I'd still like to see Vince Coleman coaching at first base, but my future coaching dream team includes Grace as hitting coach, Greg Maddux as pitching coach and Joe Girardi at the helm.

Meanwhile the guessing game continues. Wild Card leader Cincinnati has lost four straight to drop to three over .500, and only those D-Backs join Cincinnati on the happy side of .500 in the Wild Card race. With the split today, the Cubs climb to 10 1/2 games away from a playoff spot with only 13 games remaining against above-.500 teams in the final third of the season including six versus a Cardinals team that the Cubs have inexplicably dominated this year, versus 13 remaining against current last-place teams Pittsburgh (10) and San Fran (3). With the National League being a world of suck this year, including a Western Division that's hovering around the .500 mark like a swarm of bees, this is like putting a loved one on life-support and having them make brief rallies that you know only stave off the inevitable.

The ultimate truth, however, is that one of those mediocre-to-sucky teams is going to the playoffs, and all bets are off as to guaranteeing what happens from there. We're still not even at the point in the season when the fissure opened for the '69 Cubs, and anyone who makes, say, a 15-of-20 run against those other mediocre-to-sucky teams can make a major statement in the Wild Card race.

The Aftermath

Still less than 24 hours after the Cubs traded two of my favorite roster members, I can’t help but look to 2007. Why? Well, there ain’t much of 2006 left to look forward to.

So… Cesar Izturis. Gold Glove shortstop. Not bad. Mike Downey of the Tribune talked to Tommy Lasorda, who said Izturis was the Dodgers’ best defensive shortstop since Pee Wee Reese. His contract is through 2007 with an option for 2008.

Defensively the Cubs could have their best infield in the quarter-century-plus that I’ve been following them. Derrek Lee has a couple of Gold Gloves, and Aramis Ramirez leads NL third-basemen in fielding percentage. Ronny Cedeno has incredible range and quickness, and maybe a move to second base (a la natural shortstop Ryne Sandberg) is the answer to his youthful exuberance leading to some hastened, ill-advised throws to first since second-sackers have more time to make a play.

It had better be a busy off-season addressing pitching and the outfield, but it looks like the Cubs could have a core infield of young defensive studs (Derrek Lee is the oldest of the four, and he turns 31 in September) with a pair of big bats on the corners.

Not a bad place to start…

Follow-Up

Chalk one up for irony. The moritorium continues for another week.

There's nothing quite like seeing Glendon Rusch get lit up like a pinball machine with nobody even warming up in the bullpen. Unless, of course, it's Will Ohman getting lit up like a pinball machine with nobody warming up in the bullpen later in the same game. D-Backs 15, Cubs 4.

Pbbbbt.