Seeing red

I would swear that up until last year or so, the Cubs had owned the Reds for a number of years. The Reds' offense has improved, but their pitching really doesn't seem dramatically better, so I'm not sure why they've suddenly become such a bugaboo. Let's recap the most recent series:

Friday, 4/13: Reds 6, Cubs 5
Zambrano mostly coasts through four innings, then suddenly fails to show up for the top of the fifth, allowing four runs and leaving the bases loaded before being yanked without having recorded a single out. Will Ohman promptly walks the next two guys, saddling Big Z with the loss. My dad speculates that it was all Zambrano's time on the basepaths that wore him out for the fifth - he had just homered in the bottom of the fourth, and in the second he doubled and scored a run. But shouldn't a guy who wants $15 million a year be just a little more of an athlete? Cripes. Of course, the Cubs' inability to score even one more run after the fourth inning isn't exactly inspiring.

Odd note about this game: in one of those weird quirks of baseball's rules, Todd Coffey got the win for the Reds in this game even though the winning run scored in the top of the fifth and Coffey didn't enter the game until the bottom of the seventh.

Saturday, 4/14: Cubs 7, Reds 0
Thank God for Rich Hill. At the risk of jinxing it, he is rapidly becoming the ace of the staff. He did walk four guys, but he still went 7 with just 95 pitches, and lowered his ERA to 0.64. Yeah, it's only two starts, but given how he finished last year it looks like he's finally got it. Fun fact: Hill, at age 27, is a year older than Zambrano.

Sunday, 4/15: Reds 1, Cubs 0
Now this was a traditional Cubs suck-job. Lilly strikes out ten in six innings, gives up two hits, the Reds scratch out a run... and the Cubs lose because the bats go absolutely frigid against Kyle Freaking Lohse of all people, who strikes out a career-high 12 in eight innings. In the sixth, it was first and third with no outs, and then Lohse struck out the next two guys. Almost anything else would have scored a run, but no. Three of the Cubs' hits came off the bat of Ryan Theriot, who is making a really good case to stay in the lineup (although where do you put him when Ramirez comes back?), but that was the only real positive of the day, aside from Lilly having a third good start but having nothing to show for it for the second straight outing.

4-7 is hardly the end of the world, but given how wide open this division should be, the Cubs cannot afford to lose so many games to division rivals this early in the year. Of course, the team is built almost entirely of slow starters, so come mid-May things may well be all right, but we'd better be careful that things haven't gotten out of control by then. The staff seems all right, assuming Zambrano doesn't flake out - I really hope this isn't extension-related spazzing out - and the team really should hit more than it has. Let's not rush to too many conclusions from 11 games. That said, as they say, pennants aren't won in April but they can be lost. Things need to start getting a bit better.