The Curse of Wrigley Field

Jason Marquis, with a chance to salvage the series and stick it to his former employer, was as effective as anger management courses for Lou Piniella during the Cubs’ 5-3 loss to St. Louis Sunday night. He allowed five runs and notched five walks over 5-1/3 innings. Fittingly, his ERA is now over five. And if he continues to pitch this poorly he may no longer be one of the Cubs five starters.

His teammates didn’t do much to help. With the bases loaded and no outs in the seventh, the vaunted-Chicago lineup managed to score just one run — a sacrifice fly from Kosuke Fukudome.

The Cubs have now lost three series in a row and went 2-4 against their chief competition for the National League Central Division title.

Both the pitching and batting have been grossly inconsistent all season long. The natural ebb and flow of the season is expected. The offense and defense will not play it’s A-game 100 percent of the season. But to go from brilliance to incompetency over the course of a month is worrisome.

With the exception of the Nationals series, the Cubs have taken advantage of the weak teams they’ve played. Now, they have to start showing up against the top teams in the league and in their division. Chicago has proven it can beat good teams (see New York Mets) but has underachieved against Milwaukee and St. Louis, the only other solid ball clubs the Cubs have played this season.

Chicago will not win the division by just beating the Pittsburgh’s and Cincinnati’s of the world.

And speak of the devil, the Cubs are now off to Cincinnati. Sadly both teams have the same record (3-7) over their last ten games. But the Reds look worse coming in having lost five straight and having the worst record in baseball.

It’s a perfect chance for the Cubs to pad their record some more before hosting red-hot Arizona this coming weekend.