Cubs take two of three from Sox
With the Bulls playoffs and Bears draft, I haven't had a chance to write about the Cubs lately. They haven't really been bad, but they had lost their last three series heading into the Crosstown Classic. The bullpen has received the brunt of the blame for the recent slide, but really its simply been more of the same: no clutch hitting. The reason the Cubs record out of the pen was 2-11 is that they weren't able to come back in late innings. The bullpen ERA and performance has been middle-of-the-pack in the NL. Nothing to write home about but not exactly Alfonseca-like either. Over the weekend, there was some talk about moving Dempster to the rotation, a move that I don't get. Dempster sucked as a starter. Mets blowup aside, he's been pretty good this year and he was pretty good in 2005. He hasn't been a decent starter since the year 2000. Moving Dumpster to the rotation and a rookie like Guzman or Marmol to closer causes more problems than it solves. It seems they've already backed off this idea, which is good. Just the fact that they thought of it was ridiculous.
As for the Sox series, the first two games were awesome. (Like I would describe them as anything but.) I went to Saturday's game, and when Lee hit that bomb, Wrigley was as loud as I've heard it since Kerry Wood hit that home run in game seven of the 2003 NLCS. Just nuts. Just a great win.
Of course, talking to a Sox fan like Perry, those wins should be nothing to get all excited about. The Sox' pen is awful. Way worse than ours, it seems. Whatever, I enjoyed our two days of bliss before Zambrano imploded on Sunday.
What is up with that guy? Head case? I know he's side-arming it a lot this year, and apparently that's dinging his velocity. But his velocity is up when he goes over the top, so it doesn't look like there's an issue with his arm. All I can assume is that he's thinking about his contract every time out, which is a shame. I hope he gets whatever's ailing him resolved soon, as Marquis is starting to fall apart himself and we'll need Z at full strength if there's any hope for this season.