The Cubs were shut out by the Nationals 2-0 this afternoon -- the first time they have been shut out this year.

That took 25 games. For perspective, here's a list of the first game in which the Cubs were shut out in the twelve seasons before 2008:

2007: game 11
2006: game 23
2005: game 7
2004: game 19
2003: game 21
2002: game 21
2001: game 23
2000: game 27
1999: game 17
1998: game 13
1997: game 6
1996: game 23

So in all but one season -- and that happened to be a pretty bad year, actually, 2000 -- the Cubs were shut out earlier than the 25 games it took in 2008. This offense is pretty good -- it just got shut down today.

This was posted by BCB reader cwyers in the comments in the overflow thread, and in case you haven't seen that, and even if you have, it bears repeating:

The spread in talent between major league ballclubs is pretty small when you take a step back and look at it from a distance; the Nationals only look like a really bad ballclub when you compare them to other major league teams. And even then, we tend to exaggerate the difference in quality between two teams.

Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. The good teams tend to win more and the bad teams tend to lose more, but that’s over a 162 game season. In ONE game, any team in the majors, even the Giants, has enough talent to win.

It’s not a problem about "being in their heads," or being tired, or being mentally weak, or whatever character defects the armchair shrinks like to ascribe to sheer random chance. This happens, and it happens all the time. The difference between the best and worst record in baseball last season was only sixty games of 162.

What you do is you tip your cap to the other team, and you move on to play the next game.

Couldn't have said it better, although I will quibble a bit with one assertion that Colin made: I think the Cubs are tired after playing 13 games in three time zones over the last 13 days. Four different times in that 13-day stretch, they played a night game after a day game, and that can really screw up your body clock, especially considering that the first seven games of this season were all day games, and that's after playing a month of day games in Arizona (there was one split-squad night game during spring training).

(Also, wasn't the difference between best and worst in 2007 thirty games, not sixty?)

This isn't to offer excuses, and you might say, "How can they be tired after not even one month?" But given the cross-country travel of this bizarre "if it's Wednesday, this must be Denver" road trip, switching game times and time zones, I can see how the Cubs would have come out a little bit flat this afternoon.

So, give credit to John Lannan, who kept the Cubs off balance all day, and to Jon Rauch, who had Daryle Ward swinging at a pitch to end the game as if Ward were saying, "Enough of this game, let's go home." The Cubs had two big chances to chase Lannan and put the game away -- in the fifth when they caught a break on Nick Johnson's error and loaded the bases with one out, only to have Ryan Theriot hit into a soul-sucking double play, and again in the sixth when they again had runners on second and third with one out. Groundouts from Mark DeRosa and Ronny Cedeno took care of that.

Too bad, because for the second straight start, Ted Lilly threw pretty well. A pair of two-out singles in the second inning scored the only runs the Nationals got all day. The Nats had only four singles, and the two walks Lilly issued (neither of which were involved in the scoring). Michael Wuertz and Kerry Wood also threw well today, as did Sean Marshall, getting out of the 7th inning after walking pinch-hitter Aaron Boone.

So, as Colin said: tip your cap to the other guys (who the Cubs, under this year's pick 'em schedule, won't see again for almost four months, till late August at Wrigley Field), enjoy the day of rest -- actually, closer to two days off with the next game not being till Tuesday night -- and get ready for another series with the Brewers.

Two series with the Brewers at home in April and none in Milwaukee till July? That's a topic for another day.

I knew I forgot something today. Here's your overflow thread.

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We are, once again, in uncharted territory. There are three games remaining in the month of April. The Cubs' win last night tied the franchise record for wins in April, 16 (it was set in 1969, and to be fair, there are more games played now in April than there were in past years). Derrek Lee has seven home runs; the club record for HR in April is eight, set by Lee Walls in 1958 and tied by Sammy Sosa in 2000 and 2002.

Keep up the good work.

Stop the presses -- Greg Couch actually wrote a good column today with which I agree 100 %: Get Alfonso Soriano out of the leadoff spot when he returns from the DL. Couch writes:

So what should [Lou] Piniella do?

Move him down to sixth in the lineup, where his power matters more and his selfishness hurts the team less. He can do great things, almost carry a team, when he's on. But in the postseason, you have to be more disciplined than ever.

A-freakin-men.

On the other hand, something I disagree with in today's Sun-Times: Chris DeLuca says "don't count the Cardinals out. Not to diss them too much, but I think St. Louis will come back to Earth -- especially if Albert Pujols' elbow blows out, which it could at any time. On another topic, DeLuca reminds us that Mike Cameron's 25-game suspension ends today and he will make his season debut Tuesday against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Bruce Miles writes today on the positives and negatives of the Cubs' newfound propensity to attempt stolen bases.

And, the usual Mike Downey nonsense, in which he attempts to "rank" the top 25 regular season games in Cub history. (He managed to get the date wrong on the one he puts on the top of the list -- the NL East division clincher in Pittsburgh was on September 24, 1984, not September 9.)

Today's Starting Pitchers

T. Lilly Cubs vs. J. Lannan Nationals 1-3 W-L 1-2 7.30 ERA 3.42 18 SO 21 11 BB 10 4 HR 2 vs. Was -- vs. Cubs

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Ted Lilly threw very well in his last start. It's time to build on that and get that ERA, currently orbiting Mars, down to a reasonable level. It'll take a while. Even if he does what Z did last night -- throw seven scoreless -- his ERA would drop only to 5.68. There's a fair chance he can do this against this franchise -- last year he won his only start vs. Washington, allowing one run in 7 IP. He's particularly good vs. Nats SS Cristian Guzman (1-for-18, 8 strikeouts).

John Lannan has never faced the Cubs -- in this series, of the three starters for the Nats, the Cubs had previously faced one of the three once. No wonder Washington has so much trouble, with such an inexperienced starting staff. Lannan's numbers are pretty decent so far this year -- but with 10 walks in 23.2 IP, expect the newly-patient Cub hitters to try to wait him out.

Today's game is on WGN. Yes, this time for sure. It's also on MASN cable in the Washington/Baltimore area, and at the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)

Baseball-reference.com game preview

Today's overflow comment thread will post at 2:00 CT.

Discuss amongst yourselves.