Tuesday night made two straight frustrating losses for the Cubs. The Cubs held a 3-0 lead earlier in the game at rival St. Louis but ended up losing 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th. This after losing in the 9th on Sunday at Cincinatti when Kerry Wood blew the save.
The Cubs are 1-6 so far in the season’s final month. That makes 8 losses in the last 10 ballgames. Tonight’s loss showcased many of the Cubs problems during this rough start to September
The Cubs once again failed to tack on runs in the later innings. They allowed St. Louis to hang around, and Albert Pujols tied the game with a 3 run opposite field jack in the 6th.
The Cubs once again failed to execute the fundamentals. With the potential go ahead run on at first Geovany Soto tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt, but he bunted the ball right back to the pitcher for a double play. In that situation, if the Cubs are willing to give up an out with one of your top hitters at the plate, the runner must must advance to second someway, somehow.
Lately, it seems like the Cubs are not “with it” mentally.
On Sunday, on a potential game ending double play ball, shortstop Ronny Cedeno allowed his eye to drift from the ball to the 2nd base bag, and the ball bounced off his glove into shallow center field. The game winning run came home to score moments later on an RBI single.
Tonight, Carlos Marmol was paying too much attention to the eventual winning run Brendan Ryan at first, and Marmol committed a balk. Marmol had already thrown over to first base 3 times and was in the process of stepping off the back of the rubber again when he started his pitching motion before lifting his right foot. Thus, he committed a clear and blatant balk.
Ryan advanced to second and later scored the winning run on a check swing grounder to second by Cesar Izturis.
This was a typical Cubs-Cards game in the way the game was won in the 9th and in the way that one team came back to win after being down early
This was also a typical way that the Cubs have been losing lately.
Lately, luck just hasn’t been going their way.
Izturis didn’t even mean to swing.
Marmol nearly got a glove on the ball.
Mark Derosa made a strong throw home
Geovany Soto blocked the plate well with his left leg and made a quick tag.
But it wasn’t good enough, and Ryan slid in safely
Just like Cedeno’s error on Sunday, the Cubs are close but just aren’t winning right now
That’s why the mental mistakes (like Marmol’s balk) and the inability to lay down bunts (Soto) need to be corrected real quick.
These mistakes will continue to haunt this team if they aren’t.
Like I’ve said before, physical mistakes happen, but mental mistakes are inexcusable, especially at this point in the season in the middle of a pennant race.
Some Cubs fans aren’t worried yet, but I am.
We must get our swagger back before it’s too late.
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3 comments:
This sounds familiar... a la the last 100 years! This will just be, or so it seems, just another cubs team that, "could have been."
Or, it will only make post-season success that much more meaningful. i.e. the White Sox in 2005 almost giving away the division to Cleveland.
The Cubs are lucky for many reasons. For one that Milwaukee doesn't seem motivated enough because they seem like they're gonna choke. Also with their series against Hou, the fact that we get more of a home game at Miller Park than the Astros do. We got time to turn it around though and our division lead keeps increasing when we're off lol.
Looking forward to the game tonight in Milwaukee. I am also anxious to see how Zambrano will perform tonight. I hope he can make it past the fifth inning this time following the brutal September 2 game when the Cubs lost 7-9 to the Astros. After having a few days off I think the Cubs are rested and ready to play.
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