The Morning After: Baseball Nadir
By Marcus Gilmer in News on May 7, 2010 3:00PM
Buccos Sweep Cubs
Sure, there are plenty of miscues and misplays we could point to in regards to the Cubs' rough start in 2010, but last night's 11-1 blowout loss to the Pirates represented the nadir for the 2010 Cubs season thus far. At 13-16, the Cubs now come out of a sweep by the Pirates, not exactly the cream of baseball's crop, and seem only capable of beating the Brewers and Diamondbacks on any regular basis. This is, after all, a team that struggled against and lost two of three games to the NL-worst Houston Astros. Of course, last night's loss was largely the fault of poor starting pitching - Randy Wells gave up seven runs in just two innings pitched - while the early stumbling block was blown leads by bullpen. The Cubs' anemic offense didn't help; they scored only five total runs in three games against the team with the worst ERA in the majors. While we're not yet ready to call it a day on the 2010 season - we'll hold on til our fingernails are ripped off - it's pretty clear somethings got to be done, more than moving a pitcher to the bullpen or dropping someone in the lineup. Lou needs to shake something up in that clubhouse and he'd better do it soon. The Cubs open a weekend series in Cincinnati tonight (6:10 p.m., CSN+).
Not that the Sox are doing any better...
Sox Blanked By Jays
While their North Side counterparts struggle through the early part of the season, the White Sox, too, have had stumbles out of the gate. Last night, John Danks pitched seven strong innings, allowing two runs, but those two runs were enough for Toronto as the Jays shut the Sox out 2-0. The Sox now fall to 12-17 on the year. While we didn't expect them to win the World Series, we expected better than this. The Sox offense has had it's struggles, ranking last in the majors in batting average and near the bottom in runs scored. Their pitching staff has also struggled, in the bottom third of wins, ERA, and in the top third of losses. While Paul Konerko has shown power with his 12 homers and Andruw Jones has shown something of a resurgence, Beckham and Teahen have more strike outs than hits and Jones himself has the same. We haven't heard a huge Ozzie rant yet this season, but if the Sox can't turn things around this weekend in Toronto, we have a feeling we may hear one pretty soon. Mark Buehrle tries to put the Soc back in the win column tonight (7:10 p.m., CSN).