A player like Albert Pujols can only be held down for so long, and the Cubs learned that the hard way on Sunday during a 9-1 Cardinals rout at Wrigley Field. Pujols, who had just one multi-hit game and only one home run in his past ten games hit three homers on Sunday, two off of starter Ryan Dempster and one off of John Grabow. He was going to get hot again eventually and the Cubs were hoping that he would wait until they left Chicago, but Pujols had other ideas.
Dempster had his worst start of the season allowing 6 earned runs in 6.2 innings, dropping his record to 3-5 on the season. His record is not indicative of the way he has pitched though, as is the case with most of the Cubs’ starters. On the other side, Adam Wainwright’s terrific season continued as he gave up just one run, a solo home run off the bat of Geovanny Soto in seven innings. It was Wainwright’s seventh win of the season, and he also lowered his ERA to 2.28. John Grabow made another disastrous appearance allowing three runs in just two innings of work, and seems to have turned into the team’s sacrificial lamb. He has gone from the opening day setup man to a guy that only comes in when the Cubs are down and the game is sufficiently out of hand.
Despite the loss today, the Cubs were still able to come out of this recent challenging nine game stretch with a winning record. The North Siders went 5-4 against the Rangers, Dodgers, and Cardinals which regardless of who you are that’s a pretty good record. Now it is time to see if they can continue to elevate their level of play, or will they revert back to the team they were two weeks ago? Carlos Zambrano is moving back into the rotation on Wednesday and has shown signs of returning to form. He has the potential to give this team a major boost. Tom Gorzelanny has been moved to the bullpen which means that they now have four left-handed relief pitchers. This is why the Cubs’ top pick from 2008, right-hander Andrew Cashner will be joining the team at some point this week.
A nine game road trip through the NL Central will begin tomorrow in Pittsburgh. Randy Wells (3-3, 4.79) will get another shot at it for Chicago after failing to record an out on Friday against St.Louis.
