The Chicago Cubs Sunday found an old way to lose: offense. This time the beneficiaries were the red-hot Milwaukee Brewers, and they are “smoking” with an 81-54 record. Sadly the Cubs ended the three-game series losing behind a great effort by Casey Coleman (2-7, ERA 7.14), who pitched a solid seven innings.
Carrie Muskat has reported on this interesting game in an article titled “Coleman’s effective outing squandered in loss” posted at MLB.com.
It first should be noted that the Brewers are playing perfect baseball. They have come from one game behind the first place team to lead by 10 games. They are playing as good as any team I’ve seen in awhile, and I don’t see them cooling off.
Unfortunately for the Cubs, Zack Greinke (13-5, ERA 4.05) matched and even exceeded Coleman’s performance, going 7 2/3 innings.
Unfortunately for Coleman, the Cubs couldn’t find their offense.
I mentioned the game was interesting. Chicago Cubs manager Mike Quade was tossed from the game by home plate umpire Bill Miller in the top of the first inning — it was cheap from what I could see.
Aramis Ramirez was called out on strikes on a pitch that was obviously out of the strike zone. Ramirez was very upset and began arguing the call. Quade came out of the dugout to protect Ramirez. As he left Miller, he said something and was ejected.
Balls and strikes are not to be argued. Perhaps that is what Quade did. It is a poor rule. Umpires never change their minds anyway. It seems the players should be allowed to make their feelings known as long as they remain civil.
As we look at the Cubs’ three-game series with Milwaukee, we can see the team’s year-long problems in microcosm. They had one game they lost because of errors, they had one game they lost due to poor pitching and they lost a game due to lack of offense.
What will it take to get the Cubs turned around?
I remember when the Chicago Bears stunk year after year back in the late 1960s and all of the 1970s. Finally they hired Mike Ditka and he brought an iron fist.
Perhaps that would turn the Cubs around.
References:
MLB.com Website, Carrie Muskat, “Coleman’s effective outing squandered in loss”
MLB.com Website, “Casey Coleman Statistics”
MLB.com Website, “Zack Greinke Statistics”