I know I must sound like a broken record here, but you have got to question some of these lineups that the Cubs are putting out there and we have only played three games.
No better illustration of the points I have made in earlier posts can be had than the bottom of the ninth today. The Cubs had blown a one-run lead coming into the frame. The Pirates had inserted their closer, the right-handed Hanrahan to face a string of right-handed hitters beginning in the ninth spot where Reed Johnson had been inserted in the previous inning as a defensive move to replace Soriano as part of a double switch. The unbroken string of righties stretched all the way down to the fifth spot of the order occupied by Carlos Pena.
So the chances of pulling this one out are pretty slim unless you make some moves, right? Wrong, the Cubs and everyone else must know that Johnson, even when he was a decent player two years ago, is really hopeless against right-handers, and, of course, Quade has Fukudome and DeWitt available on the bench, so the obvious move is to let Johnson strike out to start the inning.
Castro then came up and singled. Castro had a pretty spectacular day that was only marred by an overly enthusiastic throw in the top of the ninth that wound up costing the Cubs a run. Not to worry because up next is Darwin Barney, who was born to bat eighth but for some unaccountable reason is batting second today. Barney tries his best to end the game with a double play ball, but it is hit too slowly and Cedeno comes to the rescue by throwing to the wrong base over the head of the second baseman to put runners on first and third.
The Pirates best efforts to blow the game were to no avail, though, because our valiant #3 hitter, Marlon Byrd, who has never seen a first pitch he didn't like, magically came through with a perfect double play ball to end everyone's misery once and for all.
Lost in the muddle of the final two innings was a decent performance by Matt Garza who, despite striking out 12 batters and giving up 12 hits, left after seven innings having thrown only 106 pitches. Starlin Castro had two triples, a single and a walk, but, again illustrating my point about the deficiencies of the Cubs batting order, scored only one run.
For some unaccountable reason, Tyler Colvin started in right field and batted eighth, with Kosuke Fukudome, who has an OPS in April of over 1000, riding the pines even though the Pirates starter has never been able to throw strikes. With Byrd off to a bad start and woefully overrated as a player as well, Colvin should be in center field against right-handers.
Lets face facts here, with the exception of a single inning on Saturday, the Cubs are playing bad baseball in nearly every facet of the game except pitching. So are the Pirates. In fact, they played even worse baseball than the Cubs. But the Pirates are 2-1 and the Cubs are 1-2.
I'm not saying the Cubs have a great team or a really bad team. But you can field a team that maximizes your chances of winning and put them in a batting order that makes sense. This is something the Cubs have not done, and seemingly have no intention of doing.
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