Hammel!

The Cubs lost on Saturday to the Pirates, mainly thanks to Jason Hammel, who cannot seem to get out of the fifth inning with a lead or a tie.  I noted in an earlier post that the Hammel game was the key to the Cubs chances of catching Pittsburgh.  Hammel has just not been the same pitcher since the All-Star Break.  Maybe it is the hamstring injury or maybe he just doesn't pitch well for an entire season.  My recollection is that he pitched pretty poorly for Oakland last year down the stretch after the Cubs traded him off in the Russell deal.  In any case, he does present a bit of a problem for Maddon in setting up the rotation should the Cubs move on after the one-game playoff for the wild card slot.

It also sets up a similar dilemma for next year.  The Cubs will almost certainly try to land a big name big money starter from free agency and they are also likely to try to trade to get a younger arm like Tyson Ross in return for either Castro or Baez.  Haren has announced his retirement already, but this situation makes Hammel fairly expendable as well unless he turns things around pretty quickly.

Anyway, all this leaves the Cubs in a precarious position in terms of catching the Pirates for home field advantage.  They are 5 1/2 behind now and even assuming they win Sunday night (a fair assumption given that Arrieta is starting) and Monday as well in the make-up game against the Royals, it still leaves them four games back.  They would need to win all the rest of their games against Cincinnati and Milwaukee and hope the Cardinals sweep the Pirates and that Pittsburgh loses at least one of the remaining games against the Reds after that.  A pretty tall order.

The Cubs celebration of clinching a post-season spot came as rather an anti-climax after Saturday's game.  They were celebrating nearly twenty-four hours after backing in and after consecutive losses as well.  Still, it is a considerable achievement and certainly a harbinger of things to come.

I managed to get tickets for the Sunday night game, which should be fun.  The atmosphere should be wild and I'm looking forward to watching Arrieta pitch in person, which I haven't done this season.