One night after their 11-1 romp over the Mets, the Cubs fell back to earth. There’s nothing like a great game to start a homestand and build some confidence, but that did nothing to keep the Cubs from more bad pitching tonight against the Mets. While the Cubs haven’t actually lost tonight’s game against New York (they are in a delay during the seventh inning), the Cubs are down 7-4 after they needed three pitchers to get through two innings.
One Tuesday, Ryan Dempster actually pitched well and the Cubs cruised to an easy victory against the Mets. Dempster pitched seven innings, giving up only one run with five strikeouts and only one walk (even with the start Dempster still has an ERA of 6.29 this season). The Cubs offense used a 13-hit attack to score 11 runs. Starlin Castro collected three hits on the night while Darwin Barney, Alfonso Soriano, and Lou Montanez (making his Chicago debut) each had two hits.
Wednesday night’s game started out just the same way. After the Mets scored a run off starter Casey Coleman in the first inning, the Cubs responded with four runs in their half of the inning. However, that was the highpoint of the game so far. The second inning was disastrous (much like the Cubs’ pitching has been all season) as the Mets scored five times. Coleman only managed to get one out in the inning before being pulled. Reliever Justin Berg was even worse, throwing 12 straight balls, walking three straight batters (two of which walked in a run). While James Russell managed to escape the inning with only five runners crossing the plate, he gave up another run in the fifth inning. The game is currently in a delay with the Mets batting and runners on first and second.
Even if the Cubs come back to win the game (which is unlikely), tonight’s game shows why the Cubs have problems. Dempster finally pitched well yesterday, but the Cubs couldn’t sustain the momentum into Wednesday. The Cubs don’t have good enough starting pitching. Any time a team scores four times in the first, the starter can’t go out and give up five runs in the next inning. The Cubs have yet to win three games in a row this season, and the starting pitching is the big reason why. Hopefully, Dempster has turned the corner and will continue to pitch well, but the Cubs need other pitchers to step up if they ever want a three-game winning streak.
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