No Hitting Means No Margin for Error—Cubs Lose to Reds, 4-3 in 11

I didn't get to see all of Saturday night's loss, but the portion that I did catch was more than enough for me to get the gist:

The Cubs' woeful offense—over the last two nights, for example, the team is 0-for-17 with RISP—offers no cover for defensive mistakes and boneheaded baserunning.

If the starting pitching weren't so good, the Cubs wouldn't even be competitive.

Before the game, I wondered what problems Lou Piniella was creating by stationing a defensively challenged rookie in rightfield. Turned out that having a second baseman butchering the third baseman's job was problem enough on this night.

Randy Wells, who has been mostly brilliant but mostly without support from his bullpen or his team's bats, pitches Sunday against Bronson Arroyo as the Cubs try to escape Cincinnati with a series win.

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Randy Wells
Submitted by Cubnut on Sat, 06/06/2009 - 11:38pm
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Comments

Submitted by Jim Hickmans Bat
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 6:35am

Fact--This isn't a very good Cubs team at all. You hit the nail on the head--very good starting pitching is the only thing keeping this team from the basement. The defense stinks, the offense is truly horrid, and the team seems to be just going through the motions this year. Ugly.

Frankly, I don't know how things are going to improve with the current cast of characters. Explain to me where the offense is suddenly going to come from? This team has scored less than 4 runs a majority of its ballgames. That leaves absolutely no margin of error for the beleaguered starters.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 8:45am

Soto, Bradley, Ramirez, Soriano, The Fontenaught.

Submitted by Charlie
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 10:57am

About two weeks ago you could've put Lee on that list too.

When are these guys going to come out of their slumps? I have to think Fontenot's struggles have been amplified by the team-wide lack of offense and the move to third.

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 9:15pm

About two weeks ago you could've put Lee on that list too.

Lee has been hitting since the beginning of May at this point. It has been many more than two weeks.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 9:07am

Peoria used a starter and a long reliever and a short man to hold Kane County to one run, and the offense pounded out 14 hits, including Flaherty's 6th HR and Vitters' (.352 .391 .613)10th double en route to an 8-1 win.

The cast of non-prospects in Daytona continued to illustrate their value and Ryan Searle was unable to get the bad guys to hit their ground balls at the fielders in a 10-2 ass kicking handed out by Charlotte.

The Curious Case of Darwin Barney continued as the Smokies' shortstop who was banished to the bottom of the order for a week, got moved up to the #3 spot in the order and went 1 for 3 with a BB and an RBI to maintain his .333 batting average as Tennessee beat Chattanooga. Gaub, described by one poster here as 1/3rd of 'nothing' threw 1.2 perfect innings with 3 K's in relief. He's now got 32 K's in 21.2 innings, though, 3 HR's over that time is not too good.

Atkins gave up no BB's against 7 K's in 7 innings (1 HR) in Iowa's 3-1 win over Round Rock. Matt Camp played 2nd and went 3-3 to raise his average up to .302. Another 3rd of nothing, Jeff Stevens, pitched 2 innings of scoreless relief, with 1 H, 1 BB and 2 K's. He's got a misleading 1.67 ERA, though he hasn't given up any HR's this year.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 11:11am

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/16110...

''I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy,'' said Dempster, who has spent all season constantly commuting to hospitals, keeping vigil over 2-month-old Riley, consulting with surgeons, even giving blood for an operation -- then checking his sleepless reality at the door every fifth day to pitch for the Cubs.

terrible thing to have go through...

Submitted by navigator
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 11:18am

So, how about some supporter for Dempster?! His performance this year is nothing short of remarkable considering...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 11:20am

indeed...

Submitted by Romero
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 11:44am

Thanks for this link, Rob. It's easy to forget these dudes are human and have more to deal with than just showin' up to play ball.

Good luck to you, Dempster fam.

GO CUBS!

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 11:19am

sori, riot, fuky, lee, font (3b), rejo, hill, blanco (2b), wells.

Submitted by navigator
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 11:22am

Felix Pie took such an awkard swing at the plate yesterday that the ball nearly took out his adam's apple...

VIDEO

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 06/07/2009 - 11:40am

ouch...

good news for Pie is that he has a not completey terrible 2.67 K:BB ratio...bad news is that he's striking nearly 25% of the time this year.

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