The Pre-Chicago Cub version of Lou Piniella was that of a hot-headed manager who was frequently thrown out of games, and always let his opinions be known. However, since joining the Cubs his demeanor has been far different. Piniella has been calm and reserved both during games and when discussing his team…until today. Before today’s game against Pittsburgh, Piniella called out his highest paid players for not performing up to expectations. Then when asked about trying to get rookie Tyler Colvin more at-bats, he responded by saying that he needed to worry about getting wins, not playing time. It was nice to see Piniella show a some fire because lately it seems to have been missing.
The Cubs responded today with a 4-3 victory, their first win of the season against the Pirates. Chicago was able to overcome an early 3-0 deficit, something they have rarely done this season. They also got some clutch hitting as Xavier Nady got a clutch two out single in the eighth for the game’s winning run. Derrek Lee continues to show some signs of life, coming up with two more hits today including an RBI. His batting average is now up to a much more respectable .238, a far cry from where he was just one week ago. However, Aramiz Ramirez continues to do absolutely nothing going hitless in four at-bats. There are a lot of players that have a bad first month and go onto have a great season, but we are now more than halfway through May and he is still hitting a cool .167. The longer this slump goes on for the less chance there appears to be for a turnaround, and the Cubs really need him to get his bat going.
The next two weeks are going to be a real challenge for this team, as they will take on some the major league’s best teams. They will play two against Colorado at Wrigley Field before going on a brief road trip that will take them to Philadelphia, and then to Texas to face the Rangers. They will then return to Chicago for back-to-back series against the Dodgers and Cardinals. That’s a real tough stretch of games for a team that has been in a slump.
May 18th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
bummed to see them finally take out the pirates. I was finding that streak really funny.
May 21st, 2010 at 5:19 pm
It certainly got to that point. I can’t ever root against the Cubs, but when you lose seven games in a row to the Pirates you have a special streak going that is unlikely to be seen again anytime soon (at least I’d hope so).