A Growing Illness

Regardless of individual game results, repeatedly leaving men in scoring position will curse a team game after game and year after year.  It keeps good starts from becoming wins.  It keeps bad starts from turning into no-decisions and come-from-behind wins.  Clutch hitting--the lack of it--haunted the Cubs all last season, and this year the Cubs Way has very much remained the Same Way.  The pressure on the starters to pitch with Phil Humber-esque perfection every game is a grind that can wear over the course of six months and 30+ starts.  The pressure on the young relievers to be perfect in their appearances may prove crippling.  The pressure on the hitters piles and builds and leads to desperate swings and misses and lazy ground balls on first pitches.

In the fourth inning, LeHair reached and Soriano hit a double.  No outs and runners on second and third.  Ian Stewart struck out on three pitches.  Darwin Barney struck out on three pitches while the Cards were trying to pitch around him..  Soto was intentionally walked to get to Samardjiza who actually made contact and popped out to second.  Keith Moreland (among others) has said that he thinks clutch hitting is contagious and once it starts it continues.  The best news is that there is still a lot of season left for the Cubs to become ill with sick clutch hits, and perhaps perhaps perhaps with two straight walk off hits, the beginning of this illness has begun.

Some bolded names:

Jeff Samardjiza has begun his year in 2011 Zack Grienke style:  dominating at home and average at best away.  His starts at home have been dominant.  Tonight he had good command, a heavy, hard mid-90s sinker, and his best split finger to date.  If his numbers can approach Grienke's 16-6 record and 3.83ERA, Samardjiza will be the least of this team's worries.

Carlos Marmol looks done.  He never had command but now his pitches don't break as sharply and if he throws them over the plate, they get hit.  Matt Holiday demonstrated this in the top of the 8th.  Yes, the Cubs had not had a save opportunity in fifteen games, but Marmol's issues appear to be beyond a lack of work.  With Wood injured and with command problems of his own, who else can close?  Dolis?  Camp?  Bowden?  You don't even know who these people are.  Neither do I.

Michael Jordan was at the Cubs game tonight.  He was at the Hawks game last night.  Besides being bad luck, he is showing how much he cares about the Charlotte Bobcats, the team he owns, and the team that owns a 21-game losing streak and is likely to have the worst season win percentage of any team ever in the NBA.  Ever.