There are two ways to look at the Rays' sweep of the formerly high-flying Cubs. You could say that Tampa Bay is a very good team that has now swept the Red Sox, Angels and now the Cubs at home and have a solide shot at the wild card if not the AL East title.
Or you could say the Cubs don't have quite as much pitching as they need, a deficiency that became glaring when they faced a good American League team.
The third loss in the series, 8-3, was the toughest for the Cubs. They had a 3-1 lead after starter Sean Gallagher pitched well. Then the bullpen, which had appeared to be be shaky but had performed well, melted down.
Carlos Marmol was the primary offender, hitting two batters before Scott Eyre was brought in to face Carl Crawford with the bases loaded. Marmol gave up four runs and got no one out.
You know the rest. Crawford hits a grand slam in a seven-run sevenths and the Rays go on to an easy win.
There's more bad news for the Cubs. Carlos Zambrano will undergo an MRI and is set to miss one start.
You have to wonder if the Cubs will be in the bidding for the two top free-agent pitchers, the Mariners' Erik Bedard -- given Seattle's horrible record, you'd think they'd be ready to make a deal -- and the Indians' C.C. Sabathia. Cleveland was swept by Colorado and, hit hard by injuries, appears to be sinking fast.
The Tampa Bay-Chicago series may have other effects. Will the Yankees decide that the Rays have more pitching and go into the free-agent market themselves? You have to think so, especially with the loss of Chien-Ming Wang until September.
The AL East has been far and away the best league this year. The Yankees have won seven in a row and are still five games back of the Red Sox and three and a half behind the Rays. The Orioles are three games over .500 and only two games back of New York.
The Cubs were fortunate their rivals in the NL Central were all losing to interleague foes as they did. But they have cause for alarm. Better not order those playoff tickets yet.
One worry is the bullpen. But there are other causes for concern.
The Cubs are just 3-4 since Alfonso Soriano went out. They depended on him for run production and timely hitting, and are just not the same time without him.
I'm still not sure about the bottom of their rotation, but Sean Gallagher pitched well and deserved a win.
As for the Rays, so far, so good. They have excellent pitching and decent hitting -- though perhaps not enough to match the Red Sox. What can you say about Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton? Wow.
Comments
Or you could say the Cubs don't have quite as much pitching as they need, a deficiency that became glaring when they faced a good American League team.
The third loss in the series, 8-3, was the toughest for the Cubs. They had a 3-1 lead after starter Sean Gallagher pitched well. Then the bullpen, which had appeared to be be shaky but had performed well, melted down.
Carlos Marmol was the primary offender, hitting two batters before Scott Eyre was brought in to face Carl Crawford with the bases loaded. Marmol gave up four runs and got no one out.
You know the rest. Crawford hits a grand slam in a seven-run sevenths and the Rays go on to an easy win.>>>>
Or you could say that two top excellent relievers had a bad night. - Given Marmol has 20 holds and is the best setup man in the NL and coming into this game LHB were hiiting .200 and right handers were hitting .072 and none of the batters against him tonight got a HIT - 2 of them were hit. 2 of them were walked - he didnt have his stuff TONIGHT. Scott Eyre recently had gone 33 appearances without allowing a run. These had been easily the two most reliable guys out of the pen. Woodie has been good - excellent in fact but he hasnt been as good as these 2.
The Cubs had to play 6 games in two dumps - two horrendous piece of shit stadiums that still have that asstro- turf as I call it. Minnesota is the another stadium that has that crap there as well and the stupid hefty garbage bags on the outfield wall. Given that I am a Packer fan as well - the Metrodome should be demolished and the old Met at Bloomington should be resurrected. The Packers and the Bears have always played football like it was supposed to be while the Lions and the Vikings played their fake ball and neither one of those teams could ever win outdoors when it really mattered.
If you are a Cubs fan you should remember how the Cubs got one of their best players ever in Andre Dawson who basically offered Dallas Green a blank contract just so he could get the hell out of Montreal and off the Olympic Stadium ASStro-Turf.
Every pitcher is going to run into those kinds of nights- waiting 4 days to use Marmol didnt help matters either. Take it from a relief pitcher - I used to throw at least 5 days a week just to keep loose. I was blessed with a rubber arm - too bad a 90+ fastball didnt come with it.....