In my estimation, there are four kinds of losses that, if not specific to the Cubs, they seem to suffer through more often than most teams. These are:
Type 1: Look completely overmatched against a pitcher who would get destroyed by any other team in the league.
Type 2: Fall behind by several runs early, come back (2a: within a run; 2b: to tie; 2c: actually take the lead), then stop hitting for the rest of the game and lose.
Type 3: Score a couple runs early but blow a chance to tack on several more, then stop hitting for the rest of the game.
Type 4: Hold a lead late that gives your fans a false sense of security, then proceed to totally gag it up. Classic example: Game 6 of the 2003 NLCS.
This series featured examples of the first two types, with Type 2 embodying the losses both yesterday and today. And that's why, despite a sizeable pro-Cubs contingent, the Cubs stumbled out of Florida with ten straight losses to the Marlins. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity.
And yet after all that, the magic number is two, thanks to ample help from the Brewers, who clearly don't want to win the division either. The Cubs need to win just one more game to assure themselves of a playoff at worst; two wins, or a win and a Brewers loss (or two more Brewers losses, but I'd really like this team to win a game before the end of the season), and the Cubs are in. And then I can start worrying about how they don't match up too well with any of the potential playoff opponents.
I'd like to see Zambrano have a big start tomorrow and pitch us in. That would be a nice punctuation mark to his up-and-down year. Am I confident in that happening? No, not especially. But hopefully he'll at least pitch okay. At the very least I hope the rest of the team can shake out of the funk and go back to the form that saw them maul the Pirates just five days ago.
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