OK. Soft-tossing lefty, Pittsburgh Pirates, Lou's special lineup. 2-1 loss. Record against Pirates, one of the worst teams in baseball, actually hardly a step above AA, 2-8. Pirates record against everyone else, 18-48, that's .272, fans, that's barely winning one in four games.
Of course, it was all Zambrano's fault. They were playing a man short, which of course accounts for Theriot hitting into a double play on the first pitch with runners on 1st and 3rd as well as Soriano, Soto, and Nady (Nady???) striking out in the 9th with the tying run on base, and it also accounts for Colvin (whom I like and think will become a good player) misplaying a line drive into a triple to account for one of the two Pirates runs.
At least the Zambrano affair has reached some sort of conclusion or papering over. Apparently, Z will seek counseling until after the All-Star break when the Cubs will likely be at least 15 games below .500 and everything will be just peachy and probably he will not need to apologize to the team because by then they may have realized he was right after all.
It may just be me, but I somehow get the impression that Hendry has a lot more invested in Zambrano in general (they go back a long ways) and that Lou is not entirely on board with this rehabilitation project. I also think, despite Z's unusual motivational theories (see his conversation with Kevin Millar here, or at least Millar's account of it) that Piniella is the problem. Just looking at the shots of this brooding presence on the bench and contrasting it with, say, the loose demeanor of Ozzie and the Sox over the weekend and you see what I mean. This team is really up tight top to bottom and that may have a lot to do with the personality and style of their manager. Maybe I'll devote an entire post to this theory later this week.
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