Who is this Murphy guy, anyways, and why must we always follow his law?

Okay, you can't tell me Harry Caray would be happy about this:




Monday: Pirates 10, Cubs 8

Well, at least the Cubs offense showed signs of life Monday with 10 hits and seven walks. Cubs hitters did not draw a walk over the weekend, and they were jumping at everything they saw, but they had patient at-bats Monday and forced Paul Maholm to throw 93 pitches in just four innings. Ultimately the Cubs would score more runs Monday than they had in the previous week. Hopefully that trend can continue tonight as they go up against Ian Snell; Snell is 1-5 with a 4.88 ERA this year and is 1-5 with a 5.93 ERA in his career against the Cubs.

But, as Murphy's Law would have it, Cubs pitchers picked the same day to refuse to get anyone out, allowing 10 runs on 18 hits and five walks to a Pirates team that had scored four runs in their previous three games combined. Dempster made it through just four innings, meaning our big, bad (and I mean bad) bullpen had to throw five innings. The end result: losing streak now at eight.

Here are the ERA's of Cubs relievers, through Monday:

Guzman: 3.15
Marmol: 3.60
Ascanio: 4.05
Gregg: 5.40
Heilman: 5.49
Patton: 6.91
Cotts: 7.36

I don't see how the Cubs can succeed this year without significant changes to their 'pen.

Another edition of one of my favorite segments: Good News, Bad News. The good news: right now, it feels like a team that could go through this horrid of a stretch doesn't have the stuff to win the division, but the 2006 World Series champion Cardinals suffered through three such stretches-- they had two eight-game losing streaks and another seven-gamer that year. The bad news: that team sneaked into the playoffs with 83 victories; I don't think 83 wins would vault the Cubs into the playoffs this season.

Why on Earth, with both Mike Fontenot and Kosuke Fukudome available off the bench, did Piniella pinch-hit Carlos Freakin' Zambrano in the seventh with two on and two out? Now that Zambrano's back from the DL, can we expect him to consistently be our first or second option off the bench again? Gimme a break, Lou.

It was pretty cool--seriously--that Ted Lilly got ejected from the bench Monday. As Len and Bob pointed out, some starting pithcers, on a day they're not starting, will watch the game from the video room. That means Lilly was getting a very close look at home plate umpire Bob Davidson's calls. I don't know what Lilly said to get ejected, but I can just see him walking into the dugout from the video room just to tell Davidson, "Hey, I've been watching your calls in our high-tech video room, and I really must say, you're doing quite a horrendous job tonight. Just thought you should know."

MLB note

The Indians overcame a 10-run deficit--and a 10-4 deficit in the ninth--on Monday to beat the Rays 11-10. The Indians trailed 10-5 with two outs in the ninth, but the final six men reached base.