Lou Piniella continues to shuffle the lineup around, but once again it did not make a bit of difference as the Cubs were held to one run in last night’s loss to the Astros. Felipe Paulino, who entered the contest with an 0-7 record, surrendered just one run on five hits over eight innings. The Astros won the ballgame 3-1.
Piniella replaced Fukudome at the leadoff spot with Marlon Byrd who performed well with two hits including an RBI double for the Cubs only run. Meanwhile, Fukudome slid down to fifth in the order and went without a hit. The rest of the lineup stayed pretty much the same as it has been all season. With all of the shifting around that Piniella has tried to do with the lineup, there is one move that he seems very reluctant to make that I believe needs to be done. Aramis Ramirez simply cannot continue to hit in the cleanup spot. Not with a .154 batting average. It is a very difficult thing to do to move a player like Ramirez out of the middle of the order. Since arriving in Chicago he has been the Cubs most consistent run producer but he is absolutely lost at the plate right now. This is no time to be worrying about keeping guys happy and soothing egos, however that is exactly what it looks like. If Piniella wants to put the best possible lineup on the field tonight, it would include Mike Fontenot and Tyler Colvin, with Aramis Ramirez hitting somewhere near the bottom of the lineup.
This situation feels similar in some ways to the end of Sammy Sosa’s time with the Cubs. He was no longer the feared hitter he once was, and it took Dusty Baker months to finally have the guts to move him down in the lineup. I hope that it will not take Piniella as long as it took Dusty to realize this.
The Cubs will try to snap a four game losing streak tonight as Ryan Dempster (3-5, 3.72) will go against the Astros ace Roy Oswalt (3-7, 2.78). It has been a tough year record wise for Oswalt, but he is pitching his best baseball in a while. The law of averages says that eventually the Cubs will score more than three runs in a game again. Who knows when it will happen again, but tonight seems like a good time for it.
