Bruiser Chong

The Cubs bullpen tarnishes a brilliant outing from Clement, who struck out 13. But Patterson comes through with a two-run homer in the 11th to secure the dramatic Cubs win.

If Schmidt's out, I'll shed a tear for my fantasy baseball aspirations. I was wondering why he wasn't back out there for the ninth, since he was still at a reasonable pitch count.

Carlos actually pitched well. He made one mistake; that being the two-run triple to Bill Hall (who I swear to god, sucks against anyone not wearing a Cubs uniform). The bullpen actually held things down. It was just our bad defense and anemic offense that did us in. More or less, everyone's healthy for the Cubs now. No excuses left not to make that big running EVERYONE has been expecting them to make all season. Hard to say if it's going to come, but if they're gonna make one, it'd be wise to get on that, stat.

Looking at things as they sit, it seems like the Padres are actually the team that deserves to get the WC. The Cubs are just a flop like the Astros and the Phillies this season. No matter how great the starting pitching is, the offense can't regularly get things going. ONE run against the Brewers tonight and of course, it's a homer. Sosa IS Mark McGwire circa 2001. If it's not a homer, he's making an out. We've got JOSE MACIAS batting second, too. And Nomar's need to make every play a fucking highlight is already costing the Cubs. I'm liking him overall, but I agree with his overrated status as a great shortstop. Meanwhile, the Cardinals continue to look and play like the team I dream the Cubs could play like. Hard-working, supportive of each other, coming through in the big situations, etc.

These umpires need to die. Or at least go away. Another easy call blown against the Cubs tonight.

I'm still not crazy about Patterson, but I give him credit for having more plate discipline over the past few weeks since moving into the leadoff spot. I've only got beef with Sosa, Farns, Baker and to a lesser extent, Alou.

Don't worry; it'll even out. Stranger things have happened, but I can't see the Giants actually holding it all together to get to the postseason. They've just been playing some bad teams and let's not forget they play the Padres quite a few more times.

Now there is the Jose Mesa we all know and love. He blows a four-run lead in the ninth against the DIAMONDBACKS. THE DIAMONDBACKS.

Yeah, they're statistically a better team than last year. It's just that the Cardinals are so good this season, the Cubs look worse by default.

On paper, it would seem they at least tried to improve the pen. Bringing in Hawkins was a god-send, as he's been the only one to be reliable on a regular basis. The dumped Guthrie, Veres and Alfonseca; so they at least tried to get rid of a lot of the weak links of the 2003 Cubs. However, they made their mistake by keeping Farns, thinking Borowski was actually going to be a reliable closer for another season and by only making marginal upgrades in the pen. Don't get me wrong; I think the 2004 Cubs bullpen is stronger than last year's, but not by a whole lot. Rusch is having a career season, Hawkins has been solid and Leichester has usually been on. One guy (Farnsworth) shouldn't make all of the difference, but he makes a big one. He's used in prominant game situations, so his mistakes are amplified that much more. Of the current bullpen, I think Hawkins is the only sure thing and the only guy I think they should definitely re-sign next season. Rusch has been great, but I'm just waiting for him to crash back down to Earth. Remlinger has started to come along, but he's aging, so it's not wise to put too much stock into him. I honestly think they need to discard Borowski and Farnsworth and put Wellemeyer and Hawkins in the 8th and 9th inning slots.

Good. We've all seen how they've been playing against teams that aren't in last place.

It seems like everyone on the Cubs outside of the big starting pitchers, Sosa, Alou and now Nomar, are more or less overlooked by ESPN and other sports programs.

Dave Campbell said the same exact thing on the Hot List last week. And it's true. He said they've got a lot of talent but a lot of the guys don't have that natural instinct that makes a lot of teams successful. They make mental errors that beat themselves, whereas a team like the Cardinals almost never make such mistakes and take advantage of teams that do. Hence the huge difference in the two team's respective record. And I think Stone and Carray had a reason to be pissed. That seemed like a game that they more or less had locked up. Prior had pitched beautifully, they were actually hitting the ball pretty well and playing some strong defense (i.e. Lee at first). Then it all fell apart. Whether they're supposed to be partial or not, you can't ignore reality and the reality was the Cubs had no excuse not to win yesterday. They lost because they fucked up. Simple as that.

Today was the first time I can recall one of the two flat out saying they needed to take Farnsworth out of there if they were going to stop the damage. I guess on the postgame show, Steve Stone actually indirectly said that Baker needs to step up because this team's lacking leadership. I couldn't agree with him more. It'll prolly get him banned from Wrigley Field or something, but he's right. Dusty wants to be the players' friend and Sammy's too busy finding excuses for his horrible slump.

Fuck Farnsworth. Bastard looked like he was about to cry and that's too bad. This game was HUGE for the Cubs, as the Dodgers are probably going to be an opponent for them in the postseason. Aside from yesterday and the first half of today, they've looked like shit against them. This bullpen is trash, too. They've continued to let games get out of reach or blow games for the Cubs all season. It's time to accept the fact that Farns ain't ever gonna be the closer they want. Cut your losses and get rid of the schmuck. Otherwise this team isn't going far in the postseason. The Cubs have absolutely been OWNED by the West this season. Aside from the Rockies, they've only EIGHT games against the West and today was the last day against the division. For a while it was looking like Nomar's damn double-clutch was going to be a huge factor in the game, but not so. Still a pretty costly move from him. And what's with Alou? This guy is seriously starting to cause more problems than anyone on the team. He's supposed to be one of the leaders and instead, he gets tossed from one of the biggest games the Cubs play this season. Over stupid shit, too. Ugh. I love this team, but the current incarnation is making me age early.

I agree. Fuck this guy. He's had years to pull it all together and he's flopped. He's had a couple decent seasons sprinkled in between some god-awful ones. Last year was okay, but at this point, that's not good enough. Worst yet, he's had a pitiful season so far and I don't see it getting any better. Put him on the DL or something. Anything to keep him from coming in any games. And to a point, this is Baker's fault too. This guy clearly can't handle pressure and yet, Baker brings him in to some of the most pressure-filled situations the Cubs get themselves in. I was watching with my girlfriend today and as soon as they brought him in, I told her it was over. Just an inning before, I told her how big the potentional run at third for the Cubs was, since a two-run lead isn't enough for the Cubs. Too bad I was right. What a wasted outing for Prior, who looked great. They got a new bullpen, but it's still the same results. They fucking suck. How about investing some money into the damn thing, since it's still clearly the weakest link on the team?

Well, at the very least, you won't have to wait until late September to have your playoff chances dashed. I'm hearing that the Pirates just released Randall Simon. Not surprising, since he's had a terrible season. Someone will probably pick him up and as bad as his season's been, perhaps the Cubs should pick him up just to have another bat on the bench. He was pretty big (no pun intended) for them last season and while it would be a big risk, since he's been so bad this year, they need another bat off the bench while Hollandsworth is on the DL.

I really dislike days at Wrigley when the wind's blowing in, since the Cubs can't wise up and learn to adjust their hitting. Instead of multiple home runs, we get LOTS of annoying flyouts. Kerry Wood actually just went deep and to no real surprise, the next two hitters were looking like they were trying to hit it out of the park. They should've at least taken notes from the Dodgers yesterday. They scored eight runs yesterday and all of them came in from singles. Ordinary basehits will do the job fine. No need to hit the two and three run homers. Too bad they can't figure that out.

It truly was a horrible baseball night; for me at least. All the wrong teams won and not just that, they won by landslides. The Giants and Padres absolutely crushed their competition. The Padres have a shot at grasping first place for themselves today if the Dodgers polish off the Cubs and the Padres lay the smackdown on the Reds.

In other words, you're just giving up. I should have expected something like this given the way you had planned to take a break from watching the Cubs earlier this year when they lost like 3 in a row, and right after you said this, we came out and killed the Cards. And then proceeded to lose the rest of the games with the Cards and eventually fall so out of contention that we were looking at the WC before August was even here. I've been of this team since 1994 (what a great year to start), so it's not like I haven't stuck by them through worse times. It's just that at this point, I can't let my fan bias towards them blind me. They're just not that great of a team. They were on paper, but then again, so were the Phillies. I'd love to see the Cubs win a World Series, but by them doing it this year (don't laugh), it'd just give them reason to overlook some of the most glaring issues they've got. Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou are still going to continue being liabilities not just at the plate but in the field. Kyle Farnsworth will continue to never reach that potential he had all those years ago. The team will continue to make mental errors, since all of this bad press about it in recent weeks have not made them fix them. I just don't think this team is any real threat as long as Alou, Sosa, Grudzielanek and Farnsworth are a part of it. These guys are all past their prime or in Farns' case, a never was. Continue to build the team around great pitching, but 86 the liabilities like Sosa and Alou, clear some financial space in the process, and put that coin towards investing in younger, more promising guys.

I hope someone else wins the WC. The Cubs honestly don't deserve to get it the way they've played lately. It's one thing to lose a close one-run game against some of the best pitching in baseball. It's another to completely embarrass yourselves with rudimentary errors and poor pitching. Awful, disgusting play from the Cubs this last week. Sorry to sound so negative, but you can't excuse them playing this shoddy of ball; especially when this was supposed to be the team in the NL this season.

No I didn't respond to you because I went to bed. I figured that by 4 A.M., I had been up long enough. Terribly sorry that I didn't stay up until the break of dawn emailing corrections to you. And for the record, I wasn't talking about your column when I pointed that out. I was talking about your follow-up post. If someone was a journalist, as you claim to be, they wouldn't be making simple grammatical errors like that. I know everyone slips up, so perhaps that's just an isolated incident. Or maybe not. Have a nice day.

I know I'm no perfect writer myself, but it always irks me a bit when people who claim they're journalists can't use similar words like you're and your and they're, there and their, in the proper context.

Aww, Dougie get mad and go bye-bye. At least you're honest about your work.

He means no one's heard of him or you, jackass. Go away and quit trying to shill your shitty writing and unenthralling interviews with future jobber fodder of WWE.