The Phillies Series

And why the Cubs should fire Mike Quade right now. I mean, the Cubs were drubbed 9-1, Ryan Dempster pitched a crappy game to add to his long list of crappy games, the Cubs go up and swing at everything, looking anxious to hop into their SUVs and head to the links on their day off, and Quade blames it all on Castro and Barney combining to let a popup fall in the first inning.

Really, I have to agree with Hollandsworth on this one. And plenty of guys made mistakes all through the game, but you single out the two youngest players because, why? I guess because you want to destroy their confidence and build up hopeless mopes like Alfonso Soriano who either strikes out or hits into a double play every time he bats and who cannot catch and who doesn't even know he has a no-trade clause in his contract.

So the Cubs lost two out of three to the Phillies when they should have won two out of three. They played a nice game Monday and got an unexpectedly fine performance from Lopez. After that, they played one half of one good inning against Cliff Lee before they packed it in. Quade completely mismanaged the end game with Garza and Marshall, and anyway, Marshall has never matched up well against the Phillies, which was compounded by the fact that he, like the other workhorses of the bullpen, is slumping badly in July.

The real reason the Cubs wasted the Garza effort was not, however, all Marshall's fault. They had Lee on the ropes three or four times early in the game and they managed to let him off the hook. The Cubs lose close games all the time because they don't score runs. They don't score runs because they have an unbalanced lineup of primarily right-handed hitters who are overly aggressive, don't work the count, and, especially when there are men on base, consistently make stupid outs. On Tuesday night, the combination of Baker, Byrd, Soriano, and Soto was 1 for 14 against a left-hander. Pena, who was sandwiched in between them in another stellar Quade move, buried in the seventh spot, had three hits and a walk, which amounted to nothing, of course.

Today, the Cubs were determined to continue their string of quick, ineffectual hitting right from the start. They did not disappoint. A really awful game, which was topped off by Quade's pathetic, irrelevant post-game interview.

Hey, guys, lets take a day off and come back fresh so we can get swept by the Astros and move closer to last place.