May day

I've tried not to get too upset about the Cubs' recent form. But remember when they were 15-6 after holding off Colorado? Two games up in the Central? Well, they're now 4-9 since then and three games back, and that's before St. Louis (a team with very little right to play as well as it has so far) plays tonight. They've lost four straight series and haven't won one since that demolition of the Mets on April 21-22, which now seems like it happened three months ago. Frankly, they're doing nothing so much as reminding me of the 2007 Cubs.

That team, of course, hit its nadir at the end of May and the start of June, with a 6-16 stretch beginning on May 10 ending with a series sweep by the Marlins - the third game of which was a 9-0 embarrassment after a players-only meeting - and then losses to the Braves on June 1 and 2 that dropped the Cubs to a season-worst nine games under .500. The June 1 game, of course, featured the infamous Zambrano/Barrett fisticuffs, and Lou intentionally got himself thrown out of the June 2 game (at least, we assume) to draw attention from the players. The Cubs went 17-8 over the next 25 and were back on the path to respectability.

We can only hope that the 2008 Cubs have hit their nadir in Cincinnati on May 7 with, coincidentally, a 9-0 embarrassment in yet another lost rubber game. The Cubs walked six times off Edinson Volquez (and seven total) but managed just four hits (six total), and struck out ten times (eleven total; three each for Reed Johnson and Felix Pie, turning the Cubs' center field "dilemma" into something of a joke). The Cubs also surrendered seven home runs, four by Jon Lieber in the second inning alone, including home runs to noted sluggers Paul Bako (18 career home runs) and Jerry Hairston Jr. (33 career home runs). It's almost comical that Ken Griffey Jr., sitting on 597, did not hit one in the game. Derrek Lee and Kosuke Fukudome continued their recent slumps, each merely squeaking out meaningless singles; Lee's average has dropped from .378 to .324 during the 4-9 stretch, and Fukudome's from .351 to .320. Worse, Fukudome's OBP has dropped 62 points and Lee's SLG has plummeted from .700 to .576. And at the absolute worst, Fukudome swung at either the first or second pitch in six of his 12 at-bats in the Reds series, making one wonder what happened to his already legendary patience at the plate.

It could just be the road - Lee has hit 104 points higher at Wrigley this year and slugged over 300 points more, while Fukudome's home/road splits for BA/OBP/SLG are frankly astonishing: while he hits .448/.543/.638 in Chicago, his road numbers are .217/.304/.317. Unsurprisingly, the recent huge dips in form for Lee and Fukudome line up with playing 11 of 14 away from Wrigley. The upcoming ten-game homestand - including seven games against struggling San Diego and Pittsburgh - will do a lot to test this theory. But if this is true, it's definite reason to be concerned; a Cubs team whose run-scoring prowess is a creation of Wrigley is not going anywhere this season (especially if they can't win enough to get home-field in the NL postseason).

Even when the Cubs haven't necessarily played badly, they've found ways to lose, from giving up a walk-off home run to a career backup catcher who'd never hit one before, to tying the game on a home run in the bottom of the ninth only to lose on another walk-off home run in extras, to watching Kerry Wood come in with a two-run lead and give up three, to the most recent annoyance, Monday's game, in which Ryan Dempster decided to stop walking guys (which was where he'd been getting into trouble all year) and pitch to contact, only to have the defense fail him to the tune of five unearned runs. And then, in the top of the ninth, trailing 5-3, the Cubs loaded the bases with one out, only to have Mike Fontenot get thrown out trying to score from third on a wild pitch, Ryan Theriot walk (would have made it 5-4 if Fontenot had stayed put), and Derrek Lee ground to first (would have made it 5-5). One part of me says that losing games that way isn't so bad because you figure you'll get the breaks sooner or later. The other part of me says that you can't give away games you could, and probably should, have won, and the first part of me knows the second part is right. Especially when you turn around and see games like today's.

Thank God tomorrow is an off day.