And With That, Back To Reality

After the weekend depantsing of the Milwaukee Brewers, the Chicago Cubs are back to where they were before. Bad bullpen, terrible hitting and now, Lou Pinella is blowing up at the media. What a mess April has been.

After Wednesday's loss to the Washington Nationals that put the Cubs losing streak at 2, George Castle asked Sweet Lou why he didn't bunt with Mike Fontenot, Pinella replied with “Bunting what? With a left-hand hitter up?…What kind of baseball are you playing? Really, what kind of baseball do you play?” Well Lou, of course George Castle nor I are Major League managers, however, being down only one, with a runner on second and nobody out, does it matter if he's a lefty? I mean sure, a left-handed hitter can pull the ball to the right side of the infield to move the runner over. But were talking about good hitters. Not Mike Fontenot. Is anyone surprised that Fontenot popped it weakly? Neither was I. 

So of course, the media starts speculating that maybe Lou wasn't really mad at the question, just that he was trying to quickly light a fire under this Cubs team to get them to starting hitting like they do in Milwaukee. So how do the Cubs respond to Lou? Well, the offense put together 5 runs on Thursday. Except that 4 of them came off one swing and after they were already down 13-1. 

Ted Lily had a great first start coming off the DL in Milwaukee, throwing 6 innings without giving up a run. He made up for that on Thursday, giving up 6 in 5 innings, including 2 homers to Adam LaRoche and one to Chris Snyder. Kosuke Fukudome answered with a grand slam in the bottom of the 8th, but it was too little, too late as the Cubs bullpen one-upped Lily by giving up 7 runs in the 7th alone. Sure 4 of them were unearned on an error by Aramis Ramirez, but does that really matter when the Cubs aren't scoring anyway. Coincidentally enough, those 4 runs that Aramis help contribute to the Diamondback final line? Only 2 less than he's scored all season. Good to see you're helping someone score A-Ram.