To write anything positive after Wednesday afternoon’s 9-0 shutout by the Reds is basically impossible.  Thankfully, the Cubs had an off-day yesterday, and the goal is to forget about the past because the season starts today.

The Cubs need to forget about the solid April they had.  They need to forget about the horrible May we are having.  This team needs to refocus and regroup.  We aren’t playing well at all by any means.  The pitching hasn’t been solid outside of Zambrano.  The offense has fallen apart.

Is it time to press the panic button yet?  No, its only May 9th.  But, this team will not survive the rest of the season if they can’t get this figured out.

This weekend we start a nice 10 game home-stand, starting with a Division Championship Series rematch with the Diamondbacks.  We all remember how embarrassing it was to have the D-Backs sweep us last year.  Now, its time to take some revenge, and show the current best team in baseball that everything that has happened in May has only been a fluke.  Luckily, we will be able to do that without having to face Brandon Webb and his 8-0 record.

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Carlos Zambrano continues to prove that he is a legitimate ace, and the leader of this pitching staff.  The Cubs have not played well as of late, and Carlos took matters into his own hands and pitched 8 shutout innings against the Reds.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not, nor never have been a fan of Ronny Cedeno.  Just a few weeks ago, I was sitting on the first base side in the Monday night game against the Mets, just 4 rows up from the field, right in line with the shortstop’s throwing angle to first base.  Cedeno ended up starting at short that game, and needless to say, every time he had to make a throw at first base, I leaned over to the side every time because I was afraid he was going to throw the ball into the stands.  But this season, while his defense still has been shaky at times, he is proving he can handle himself at the plate.  Obviously, I will be skeptical for a while still, but maybe, just maybe, I’ll start to come around one of these days.

By no means does this one victory get us out of the sewer.  The Cubs need to prove that everything the last few games was just a fluke, a rough stretch if you will.  We’ve had trouble scoring runs most importantly.  Our defense also hasn’t been super stellar of late either.  Should both of these improve and return to form, we’ll be in good shape.

Today is a big game, that is no secret.  The Cubs have not won a series since April 21-22 when they easily defeated the Mets in that short 2 game series.  Today, we have a great chance in doing so, although it won’t be easy.  Jon Lieber returns to the rotation this afternoon, and opposes rookie Edinson Volquez.  Volquez is 4-1 with a 1.27 ERA, along with 42 strikeouts.  When he last faced the Cubs on April 17th, he only lasted 5 innings, but had 4 walks.  That’s the good news.  The bad is that in just 5 innings he had 7 strikeouts.  The Cubs need to be patient today, and let Volquez make mistakes.  The Cubs are a pretty good fastball hitting team, so I am sure they will get their chances to hopefully lick their chops and feast on the Reds pitching all around today.  We good use a high scoring game today heading into the off day, and knowing the the Diamondbacks, the best team in the NL right now, is coming to Chicago.

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Nothing in this world makes me angrier or more upset when the Cubs lose a series to the Cardinals.  And I mean nothing.  Here are the few things I noticed in an otherwise disappointing and horrifying series:

- Ted Lilly was the best pitcher we had out of the rotation this weekend.  Somewhat of a surprised based on how his season has started, but its nice to see that he’s worked through his issues it seems, and hopefully will be solid the rest of the way.

- Alfonso Soriano needs to remember that there actually is a strike zone, and that he doesn’t have to swing at just anything.  He looked like a lost puppy at the plate last night, and he is making it look like he has no idea what he’s doing.  Although he gave the Cubs a chance to win the game Friday night win a game tying HR in the 9th, 1 flash of luck doesn’t necessarily work for the rest of the season.

- Rich Hill is horrible.  What has happened to him??  Lou made the right move pulling him in the 1st inning, and by sending him down to AAA.  He needs to re find last year’s Rich Hill if he is going to come back to the big leagues.

- Jason Marquis hasn’t been any better.  Marquis was pretty much all over the place, and had trouble throwing strikes.  And when he did, the Cardinals were all over him.

I know its only three games, but I’m afraid that this is a trend that could continue.  Things have to change ASAP or else the rest of the season doesn’t look as promising as April was.

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It seems to be the only thing anyone at my office can talk about today. No one seems to think it actually happened. I was there, and trust me, it happened.

The Cubs FEASTED on the Brewers pitching last night, scoring an unheard of 19 runs in 9 innings (technically 8 since they didn’t bat in the bottom of the 9th). Even when the stars of the team (Lee and Ramirez) were replaced in the game, the Cubs were still scoring at will. Think about what could have been if Soriano had been in the game last night too, assuming he was on track offensively. This could have been an even greater scoring game. But we will see today where Soriano is at when he returns from the DL.

Geovany Soto was the hero, hitting 2 HRs and knocking in 6 RBIs. His HRs were laser beams into the left field seats, which seemed to basically rip through the cross wind from right to left. I also have to give big props to Ryan Dempster. He wasn’t un-hittable, but he easily could have been rocked. At one point, he had a 12-3 lead, and could have really relaxed and basically just threw out his game plan and eventually could have given up several more runs. But he stayed focused, and was able to keep the Brewers in check for the most part.

Call last night’s game a fluke, call it luck, call it whatever you want. I consider last night’s game a statement game, as every bat the Cubs had in the lineup, regardless if it was a starter or a late inning replacement, contributed in some fashion. The most important statement: The Cubs will show no mercy.

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Lately, the trend has been that I would talk about how great the offense has been, and that our pitching has struggled.  This past week however, seems to be the opposite.

The last couple of games, the Cubs seemed to have trouble scoring runs, with the exception of Saturday’s win in Washington.  Hopefully the day off yesterday will get every-one’s focus back.

This is really a week that the Cubs cannot afford to slack in any area what so ever.  The Brewers are in town for a 3 game series, and then we head to St Louis for 3.  These a CRUCIAL series.  You wouldn’t think they would be so vital this early in the season, but with the majority of our games against NL Central opponents, we need to take as many of them as possible.

I am been pleased with the last 2 starts by Ted Lilly.  It seems his control is finally back in place, and is throwing harder every start.  At this point, Bob Howry seems to be the only guy who isn’t finding any consistency right now.

And a non-Cub related note…Did anyone notice the Giants are moving Barry Zito to the bullpen??  After an 0-6 start despite being in year 2 of a 7 year deal worth $126 million, the Giants felt this move was necessary.  I know he’s been struggling, but that’s a lot of money to just simply send to the bullpen.

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No team can win forever.  Its impossible.

The way the Cubs were playing though, it seemed like they were scoring runs in bunches, or getting clutch hits to pull them ahead.  Today, it wasn’t the case.

A day after winning game #10,000 in the history of the franchise, I noticed something.  Granted I wasn’;t able to listen or watch the game today because of prior commitments, but I did sneak in the last 2 outs of the ninth.  Brian Fuentes of the Rockies was pitching, and I got to see Ramirez and Fukudome try to tie the game up.  Well, needless to say, Ramirez AND Fukudome both looked lost against Fuentes’ off-speed stuff, and were taking terrible swings.  It wasn’t the look of the Cubs that we’ve seen over the last week.

Hopefully, the Cubs can bounce back and give it to the Nationals this weekend in Washington D.C.  I will be anxiously watching Ted Lilly’s performance Sunday, to see if he can have back to back quality starts.

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The Cubs are currently in full swing, and sitting atop the NL Central after sweeping the Mets in a 2 game series this week.  Currently, the Cubs are preparing for a short series in Colorado before heading east to Washington DC to take on the Nationals over the weekend.

What is really surprising about this current run of “Domination” if you will, is that it has all been done without Alfonso Soriano.  Most people probably haven’t even noticed, because Soriano was slumping so bad in the first place.  But it could also just be one big coincidence, because everyone else just seems to be catching fire.  Hell, even Ronny Cedeno and Felix Pie are coming up with big hits lately.  And I personally wouldn’t have necessarily have seen that coming…at least not the way the past has dictated, and how both started the year off.

Even the pitching is starting to come around…maybe.  Both Rich Hill and Ted Lilly had good starts and were able to win in their last outings, hopefully having a win under their belts will help them to remain focused.

So what happens when Soriano DOES come back off the DL, which is expected to be May 1st?  Matt Murton is going to be the odd man out again, and will head back down to AAA.  And where does Soriano fit in the batting order?  Reed Johnson and Ryan Theriot have done an excellent job in the 1 and 2 spots in Soriano’s absence.  Derrek Lee is seeing beach balls, and Ramirez has reached base in every game.  And Fukudome…well he is the real deal, and is THRIVING in that 5th spot.  So the next logical place is 6th, and I’m not so sure exactly how well Soriano will do there.  It seems to be the most ideal place for him to drive in runs though.  I suppose we’ll find out May 1st.  For now, lets just keep on scoring those runs, cause we’ll need them tonight and tomorrow in Colorado.  They are after all the defending NL Champions.  Lets show them a couple things.

In other news, The Cubs Closeup Podcast will be taking a little bit of a hiatus because of scheduling conflicts.  When things work out a little better, we’ll get some new episodes back up.  Sorry for the inconvenience that this causes for anyone.

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With the exception of Thursday’s game, the Cubs were basically unstoppable all week.  I can’t remember when I’ve seen an offense be this red-hot here in Chicago.  Only 2 out of the 6 games did the Cubs fail to score 9 runs or less.  And this is all without Alfonso Soriano.

If the Cubs can continue this kind of offensive onslaught, I shutter to think of what is to come when Soriano does come back.  The Cubs obviously appear to have something working with Reed Johnson and Ryan Theriot at the top of the lineup, so hopefully Pinella will leave that alone and slide Soriano down in the lineup, preferably at the #6 spot.  Lee and Fukudome are doing well at #3 and #5 respectively, so I’d hate to see Pinella mess around with that.  And Ramirez is hitting .275 with 4 HRs.  That is expected to improve as past seasons indicate, so you can’t really mess around with moving Ramirez either.  So by default, Soriano really gets bumped down in the lineup.  That would then mean that Soto or DeRosa would be in the #8 spot, and thats pretty scary because both guys are having good starts to the season.

Pitching wise, the Cubs are doing an above average job.  Lilly still is having a mess of problems, but it does appear that maybe is going to snap out of his funk with a decent start on Friday.  Otherwise, I’d have to say that everyone else is doing a pretty solid job.

This week will be a good opportunity to create a little separation between the Cubs and the rest of the division.  We have 2 games at home against the Mets (with no Santana appearance), and then we head out to Colorado for 2, and then to Washington DC to take on the Nationals.  The key this week will be the starts from our left-handed starters, especially with Lilly expected to get 2 starts this week (Tuesday and Sunday).  If Lilly can shake his struggles, this could end up being a very solid week.

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Ted Lilly, simply put, has not been good in 2008.  In his 4 starts, he has only made it past the 5th inning once, and that was yesterday.  He has given up 5 runs in every start except his first, in which he gave up 4.  In a total of only 18 2/3 innings, Lilly has given up 25 hits, 19 runs (all earned), 4 home-runs, and 7 walks.  Not exactly a great start to the season.

If the Cubs are going to make the playoffs this year, and I fully expect them to, Ted Lilly needs to snap out of this.  Would it make sense to ride the wave and let Lilly try and work out his struggles every 5th start?  Or, would it be better for Lilly’s mentality to move to the bullpen and trade spots with Jon Lieber or Sean Marshall?  If he is only effective until the 4th inning, maybe temporarily a move to the ‘pen would give him confidence that he could come in and be effective.  I’m sure the Cubs will give Lilly another start or two before they make any rash decisions.  But with both Lilly and Hill having problems, something is going to have to be done very soon.

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Sure, we beat the Reds 9-4 last night in Dusty Baker’s first game back since being let go after the 2006 season.  Sure, Ryan Dempster once again had a solid start, and is having a very good season after going back to the starter role.  Sure, Kerry Wood had filthy stuff.  And sure, Corey Patterson looked just as good awful at the plate as he did when we had him.  Sure, we scored 9 runs without Soriano in the lineup.  But what is going to happen long term if Soriano is unable to play?

In case you missed it, Soriano got injured in the 1st inning doing his trademark hop on a routine fly ball.  Many people, especially our friends at View from the Bleachers, are super angry at Soriano for doing his hop in the first place, and this definitely isn’t going to win them over at all.  Granted, I am not happy that he injured himself with an unnecessary hop.  But if he hurt himself that easily coming down from it, imagine how much worse it could have been had he been running the bases, or sliding into a base.  His calf was obviously ready to go.

Until the MRI results are revealed, the Cubs basically have to sit and wait and see how long Soriano will be out for.  If its nothing serious and he just needs a couple days of rest, you can more than likely expect Mark DeRosa to play LF all week, like he did last night, until Soriano is ready.  If it is serious, then Soriano will head to the DL, and more than likely Matt Murton will be called up to play left.

The big question during Soriano’s absence regardless of how long it is will be who is going to lead off.  Obviously, we don’t have a legit leadoff hitter on this team, which is why Soriano is leading off in the first place.  Ryan Theriot is the likely option, but I wonder, if Murton DID get call up, I wouldn’t mind seeing him try a couple of games in the lead-off spot.  He’s not your typical lead-off man in terms of speed and base-running ability, but he does take a lot of pitches, has a good eye, and is a solid contact hitter.  It couldn’t hurt to try something new.

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