Cubs Sweep Astros! Winning Streak 3 in a Row!!

Well, excuse the satirical bent, but the excitement is palpable, isn't it? It has taken nearly four months for this team to finally win three games in a row. Who would have thought this even remotely possible at the beginning of the season?

Anyway, they did play good ball and they did sweep the Astros even though their opponents just flat out stink. The Cubs won the three games primarily on the basis of their starting pitching, getting solid efforts from Zambrano, Wells, and Garza.

In the process, they also managed to overcome significant brain malfunctions on the part of their intrepid manager Mike Quade, notably in his handling of the bullpen, but also in some of the in-game strategy. I guess I have a real problem with consistently trying to bunt Soto over to third with nobody out. Soto is just plain slow or he isn't paying attention, but in both cases over the weekend, he was out by plenty on relatively decent bunt attempts.

On Sunday, Quade was evidently asleep because he might have replaced Soto with Campana before the sacrifice attempt. As it is, he inserted Campana to run for Soriano one pitch into the Barney at-bat anyway, so who knows what is going on there, if anything.

Two disturbing trends. The first is that even though Castro has been moved up from the third spot to relieve the pressure of batting in an RBI position, he continues to swing at everything and virtually every first pitch no matter what the situation. He is hitting over .300 but his OBP is like only 20 points better than this BA. Somebody needs to work with this kid who has a world of potential but no discipline at the plate or in the field.

The other disturbing trend is the use or non-use of Kerry Wood. Sunday's eighth inning was an obvious spot for the well-rested Wood, but he was not even warming up. He has made only three appearances since the All-Star break and hasn't pitched since July 20. I was beginning to think he had been traded and they were just waiting until the end of the game to make an announcement, but that turned out not to be true. One can only think that he is hurt and the Cubs are staying mum about it for some reason.