Every time it looks like the Cubs are in trouble, the Pittsburgh Pirates seem to magically appear on their schedule. It's uncanny. Poof! The Pirates come to town; the Cubs problems are solved!
It's hard to play any worse than the Cubs have been playing for the last week. They dropped three out of four in Colorado, then got hammered three straight at home by the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cubs haven't won a series against a winning team since April, and Thursday's loss to Philly dropped them 4.5 games back of the first-place St. Louis Cardinals.
But never fear! The Pittsburgh Pirates are here!
The Cubs took the field at 1:20 this afternoon carrying a five-game losing streak. By 1:40, it was apparent that skid would soon be over. Kosuke Fukudome's 3-run homer in the bottom of the first gave the Cubs a 4-0 lead, and you knew the Pirates were toast.
Boy, were they ever toast. The Cubs batted around in the second inning before Pittsburgh could record a single out. By the time that inning ended, the Cubs had a 14-0 lead. Final score: 17-2. The Pirates gave up 17 runs on 18 hits to a Cubbie team that hasn't been able to do diddly squat for the last week.
Pittsburgh falls to 6-19 over the last two seasons against the Cubs and 40-67 since 2003. The Cubs still have eight remaining games against the Pirates, including two more at Wrigley this weekend. That gives the Cubs a fighting chance of catching the Cardinals down the stretch.
As for the Pirates, well, I guess I don't feel too sorry for the Pittsburgh fans. After all, they have the Super Bowl champion Steelers and the Stanley Cup champion Penguins to cheer for. But the Pirates -- watching that team everyday might be enough to cause a man to go on a killing spree and then turn the gun on himself. This Pittsburgh team really is that bad. Worse team in baseball year in and year out, without a doubt. Even the Royals are more competitive.
Even then, I bet the Pirates will win a championship before our lovable losers win one. I like their roster and their new management so much better than than our lovable losers. The Pirates at least have youth to build around. What they need to do is finally start keeping them together not to mention winning right away so management and ownership don't need a reason to start a fire sale.
As for our lovable losers, it's over. The Cardinals are starting to run away in the division, and to be honest, it was over when they added Holliday, DeRosa and Lugo to improve that lineup. The Cubs could not add much because of their payroll restriction with the team being on limbo as far as their sale goes.
To me, that's a good thing. This means Lou Piniella is outta here, and it could be Jim Hendry could go bye-bye once the sale is approved.