After losing their third game in a row Saturday, the Chicago Cubs seem to be in an offensive tailspin. Unfortunately for them, the St. Louis Cardinals have hit a July heat wave as far as their offense is concerned, winning their last four ballgames.
Is it too early to start panicking if you are a Cubs fan? Probably. After all, this team put up the best offensive numbers out of any NL team, by far. That said, though, the Cardinals aren't the only ones to fear for a potential NL Central or NL Wild Card race.
The two-headed pitching monster of Ben Sheets and CC Sabathia has coupled with a dynamic offense led by All-Stars Ryan Braun and Corey Hart to find themselves just three games behind the Cubbies.
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It's been covered in a ton of articles, not only on Bleacher Report, but media outlets everywhere, one team in the NL Central is going to be awfully disappointed at the end of the season. The division currently holds the three best records in the NL, and one of those teams will not see the playoffs.
Cubs manager Lou Piniella expressed his concern after a 4-1 loss to the Houston Astros this weekend, stating that the offense is utterly stagnant and it's certainly not helping that Kosuke Fukudome can't get a bat on the ball.
The NL-best Cubs have managed to plate just four runs in their last three games, consequently losing them all.
Even as a diehard Cardinals fan, I am not ready to put aside the Cubs as possible World Series favorites, especially looking at their production in the first half of the season. But I do think that if the Cardinals and Brewers continue to swing the bats and toss effective outings, that the end of the season may be very interesting.
Luckily for the Cubbies, surprising star Ryan Dempster will take the mound, looking to stop the post-All-Star break bleeding. Dempster is trying to start a new line of success for the Cubs, and it might just happen today against Brandon Backe.
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about 1 month ago
I expect the cubs to end up winning this division, but they certainly could end up running into trouble!
They aren't consistant. Fukudome has been struggling, Lee and Ramirez are known to go through power slumps, they can't expect Jim Edmonds to keep hitting the way he has been, who knows is Harden will stay healthy, Dempster is likelly to hit a real rough patch eventually, etc.....
The Cards aren't star sudded but they are scrappy and smart and we all know Larussa is an elite manager. The Brewers are young and sometimes inconsistant, but they have hitters, and they just got much better with CC in the rotation!
This division really could end up being rahter interesting down the stretch!
from about 1 month ago
Thanks for the comment, Nick! I truly think it will be one of the best division races that we have seen in quite some time!
about 1 month ago
Good article. After 3 games the offense came back to life scoring 9 runs. The pitching was there over the 3 games, but the team collectively hit a slide. The nice thing today was seeing 9 runs scored with only one coming from a home run. Soriano will be back later this week and if he returns the way he did last year, the offense will be even better than it was in the first half. Fukudome's struggles could see him lose time in RF to Derosa, and with Edmonds hitting very well the offense wouldn't lose a beat.
from about 1 month ago
I think DeRosa is an extremely underrated player. Not many people realize what an asset he is to the ballclub.
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