Reds 8, Cubs 3

My dad, for about as long as I can remember, has been saying that the Cubs need to blow up Wrigley Field, his main reason for that theory being that the ballpark has a tendency to turn pop flies into home runs (at least when the wind is blowing out, which seems to be eight times out of ten). The bigger problem as I see it is not that Wrigley does this but that the Cubs, for reasons which defy all conventional logic, never seem to profit from it as much as visiting teams do.

Take this Reds series. For all three games, the wind was blowing out pretty steadily. The one game the Cubs won was a 4-1 win in which no home runs were hit by either side, and in fact three of the Cub runs in that game were helped by five Cincinnati errors in the first three innings. The other two games, the Reds won by a combined score of 17-5. In those two games, Cincinnati outhomered the Cubs by a margin of 8-2. 8-2! This despite the fact that the Cubs were facing a pitcher on Thursday who gave up 83 home runs over the last two seasons and whose ERA in 2005 was 6.47.

To be fair, Thursday's lineup for the Cubs featured minimal power apart from Derrek Lee (Aramis is still out, Jones [ha!] is still out, and Barrett was out because Blanco was catching Zambrano). Lee saw almost no pitches to hit if the Gamecast was any indication, which is probably because he had Matt Murton hitting behind him. Murton, to his credit, drove in all three Cub runs, including the only homer of the game for the home team (a solo shot in the fourth). I like this kid, but still, Ramirez he is not.

But still. Eric Milton was on the mound and the wind was blowing out. And the Cubs could only score three runs?

I guess I shouldn't be complaining that much. They're still 5-3 with that sweep of the Cardinals, and any sweep in a series is a good thing. I guess I'm just annoyed because there should be more. I expect the Reds to score some runs; they're a homer-happy team. But their pitching is not good. Bronson Arroyo and Eric Milton are probably running neck-and-neck for ace duties, which is embarrassing. On the other hand, Milton just outdueled our supposed ace (the maddeningly inconsistent Zambrano, who followed up both home runs he allowed by ending those innings immediately with a combined three strikeouts, and also surrendered a balk of all things).

So, yeah, right now this rotation is being held together with hot glue and hair ties. And I've said all along that staying competitive until May is the big key. But it would be nice to see some more consistency from the offense - sure, 16 runs is an obvious fluke, but going from 8 in the third St. Louis game to nine in three games against the pitching-challenged Reds? Woof. Fair play to the Reds, but this is a team we have to be beating if we plan on winning the division (or even the wild-card). It's like an NCAA Tournament résumé - sure, it looks good if you beat a #1 team, but you also need to beat those teams you're supposed to beat. And as arrogant as it may sound, the Reds are a team that, all things being equal, I think we're supposed to beat. Yet so far we've had quite a time of it.