Shake this one off.

What else can you do after a loss like this one, 9-0 to the Reds, a game that was over after the second inning?

The Reds slammed seven home runs off the Cubs, including four in that second inning. The last time the Cubs gave up four home runs in an inning was nearly eight years ago, on August 8, 2000 in Los Angeles, which also happens to be the last time a pitcher -- Darren Dreifort, if you must know -- hit two home runs in a game. The four homers in the fourth inning that night were off Phil Norton, who -- and if I'm a regular ol' writer I'm supposed to say "ironically", but it really isn't -- eventually wound up pitching a couple of years of mediocre middle relief for... the Reds.

There's nothing to say about this game. The Cubs never really had any chance of getting back into it, despite drawing seven walks and leaving twelve (!) men on base; their six hits were all harmless singles, and despite having RISP in the third, fourth, fifth and ninth innings, the Cubs never got a man past second base.

I'm not worried about Jon Lieber. Sometimes you just get hit, and he did today. I'm not really worried about Sean Marshall, Sean Gallagher or Michael Wuertz, either, and all but Wuertz were touched for at least one home run. Joey Votto hit three of them, one each off Lieber, Marshall and Gallagher, and now has four HR in six games against the Cubs this season, and five of his eleven career HR against the Cubs.

Maybe it's a good thing the Cubs don't see the Reds again till July.

I hesitate to write this, because of the way such things are often viewed, but my copy of Sports Illustrated with Kosuke Fukudome on the cover arrived in the mail last Wednesday. You know, this one:

via i.timeinc.net

The Cubs won 19-5 that day, but since then -- starting Thursday, the day the magazine went on general sale on the newsstands, the Cubs are 2-5, and Dome is hitting .296 in those seven games with only one walk, after hitting .327 with 19 walks in the 26 previous games.

So it can't hurt to say this: Hey, SI. Could you keep the Cubs off the cover? Say, like, forever? Or until after they win the World Series?

It won't be a fun plane ride home for Lou, the coaching staff and the ballplayers this afternoon, but you can bet Lou and Jim will be discussing potential roster and/or lineup moves for the important 10-game homestand (the longest of the season) starting Friday against the Diamondbacks. At 19-15 the Cubs are three games better than they were after 34 games in 2007. But there is still much work to do.

Everybody take a deep breath, blow the stench of this game out of you, and enjoy the day off tomorrow.

NEW YORK -- Usually, when I have a meeting like the one I attended last night and it's at the same time as the game (7 pm EDT), I don't get to see any baseball -- the meetings usually run three to three and a half hours, and most of the time, as you know, that's more than enough time to finish a baseball game.

And when I turned on my phone (I turned it off during the meeting, lest everyone there be regaled by "Go Cubs Go", my ringtone) during a break to check the score, it said the Cubs were leading 2-0 in the top of the 8th.

"Great!" I thought, and then...

Well, I got to see the last four innings, getting back to my hotel room during the 12th, and all I can say is, I'm glad the Cubs won, defeating the Pirates 6-4 in 15 innings. If we're all exhausted from the second extra-inning game in a row (4:47 of game time on Monday, 4:20 last night), imagine how the players feel! Not to mention the fans in Pittsburgh: announced attendance was 9,735. The TV people kept away from most "crowd" shots late in the game, but in the couple I saw, it looked like there couldn't have been more than a few hundred left when the game ended.

They'll have to be very, very happy to get out of Pittsburgh. These always feel better, of course, no matter how badly the game was played, when you win.

There was plenty of good to go around from last night. Ryan Dempster threw seven outstanding innings. Ask yourself this: before spring training started, did you ever think you'd be screaming at Lou, "Don't take Dempster out!!!"?

Yeah, me either.

Kerry Wood... not so much. He gave up a homer to the first batter he faced, Jason Bay, tying the game. Does this mean Wood can't be a closer? Of course not. This kind of thing happens. However, it can't be happening too much more often; if it does, Lou may have to consider a change. We're not nearly at that point yet, though.

What I'm more concerned about is the failure to put the game away a couple of times in extra innings. The Cubs left RISP in the 11th and 13th and had a two-run lead in the 14th on Aramis Ramirez' HR before they coughed it up with a mirror-image HR off the lefthanded bat of Adam LaRoche.

Finally, Felix Pie came through with a two-run single in the 15th and Sean Marshall, the last available player (other than Ted Lilly and Rich Hill, Monday's and Thursday's starters, and Jason Marquis, who was back in his hotel room, sick) who hadn't appeared in the game, shut the door for his first major league save.

Can we stop overreacting to some players' bad starts now? The Cubs have played eight games. If I believe some of what I read, Felix Pie is absolutely worthless and has to be sent back to the minor leagues never to return.

You can't judge that off of eight games, only four of which Pie started. With Matt Morris, a righthander who the Cubs have pounded the last couple of years, starting tonight, Pie should be back in the starting lineup. I say you've got to give him at least a couple of months before ANY thoughts of a replacement (whether it's Reed Johnson, who probably shouldn't be an everyday player anyway, or someone to be acquired) be entertained. Lou Piniella noticed that Pie did the right thing last night:

"He stayed right on the pitch, and lined it over short and that's what he has to do to be a big league everyday player," Piniella said.

As I noted in the brief post last night, the last time the Cubs won back-to-back extra inning games on the road was June 20 and June 21, 1989, also at Pittsburgh. Does the coincidence mean anything? Of course it doesn't, but that Cubs team did win the NL East. They also played another long extra-inning game in Pittsburgh later that year -- 18 innings on August 6. They lost that one, but the next day moved into first place to stay.

These two games, long and frustrating though they were, have to be seen as a good sign... because the Cubs won both of them. Previous editions of our favorite team would likely have found a way to lose both of these games. Instead, they found a way to win both of them. A sweep would be sweet. I'll have a game thread up later this afternoon. (Wish me luck getting home in the rain today.)

MESA, Arizona -- In the longest, most ridiculous game of the entire spring, the Cubs and Brewers played to a 10-10 tie in front of another sellout, 12,782, and both the Cubs and Brewers traded blown leads, errors, wild pitches, walks with the bases loaded...

And none of it means anything, because by the sixth inning -- after which eight of the 20 runs were scored -- virtually everyone who's going to be on these two rosters next Monday when they next face each other, had left the game. In fact, we were treated to the bizarre sight of the starting Brewers, dressed in suits, walking from the first base dugout to the LF corner to their waiting bus.

Of the seven Cubs pitchers, six of them will likely never see a major league mound (well, in the case of Rocky Roquet and Tim Lahey, they might, but not anytime soon). The only important appearance today was that of Sean Marshall, and quite frankly, he didn't look very good. He issued three walks (one intentional), gave up three hits (all doubles) and two runs.

Hey Lou! You out there? Carmen Pignatiello has earned the last spot in the bullpen! Send Marshall back to Iowa where he can start every fifth day and be ready in case of injury.

Micah Hoffpauir is another player whose great performance today (two home runs) earned him a trip to Des Moines, where I suspect he'll play quite a bit of outfield on the chance that it might increase his versatility as a bench player.

Alfonso Soriano and Ronny Cedeno also homered, off a number of miscellaneous Brewers minor league pitchers. Cedeno's HR landed on the net on top of the scoreboard right behind us, dropped to the ground and a kid in a Brewers Geoff Jenkins T-shirt leaped over the railing and grabbed it. Me, I got a bruised elbow out of the deal, though I don't think it'll put me on the DL.

I shouldn't complain. The sun was glorious again today. The baseball was a bit silly -- we caught Matt Murton laughing in LF after Casey McGehee (moved to catcher, presumably to increase his versatility) attempted to throw Alcides Escobar out stealing in the 10th inning. Unfortunately, neither Andres Blanco (over from the minor league camp) nor Mike Fontenot had been told about this, and neither covered second base. The resulting error put Escobar on third, where he scored on an Ed Campusano wild pitch. (Campusano has talent, but he is a long way from a major league mound.)

Same for E. J. Shanks, a sidearmer who threw the bottom of the 10th for the Brewers, gave up two hits and walked McGehee with the bases loaded to force in the tying run. And that, as they say, was that.

Today, we were joined on the lawn by BCB reader dfrancon, who had driven up just for the day from a business meeting in Tucson, and who left likely with a pretty good sunburn. Also stopping by were my friends Tom & Ginger from Chicago; Tom was nattily attired in a Cubs fez and carrying a stuffed Ryne Sandberg doll in his backpark -- you have to see this to believe it. If I can I'll get him to send a photo of it to me.

Also stopping by was BCB reader StampMe, and Mike who works at the Full Shilling -- sorry, I forgot your user name!

Thus ends the the Arizona portion of the exhibition schedule with the Cubs dead even, 14-14-2, and they are on to Las Vegas tonight (frankly, I was surprised that Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez played seven innings today). I'm heading to the airport soon, and will post a game thread for the night game at Las Vegas sometime tomorrow afternoon. The weather forecast for Monday doesn't look too good right now, but weather permitting, I will, and I know many of you will, be back at Wrigley Field on Monday. Let's play ball, for real!

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- The Cubs, who have won seven of their last ten (two losses, one tie), will attempt to even their spring record at 14-14 when they take on the Angels this afternoon.

Stuff of interest this morning:

• In 2000, Jay Mariotti wrote a column slamming MLB's season-opening games in Japan. That time, at least he was there (I saw him at the Tokyo Dome). This time, he's writing the same garbage from Chicago.
• Sean Marshall gets the first shot at injured Scott Eyre's bullpen slot. Bad idea, Lou. Give it to Carmen Pignatiello, who's been great this spring, and send Marshall to Iowa, where he can start every fifth day and be ready to take over if anyone gets hurt.
• I'm not into the whole "100 years" thing. But if you are, you can join Ernie Banks and others who are trying to revive a century-old group called the "West Side Rooters Social Club" (the Cubs, as most of you know, played on the West Side at Polk & Wood Streets until 1916).
• I'm not quite sure what to make of this seance which channeled former Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges. Nice writing, though.

Carlos Zambrano will face the Angels' Jered Weaver, who has had a great spring (5-0, 1.33, 14 K and only 3 BB in 20.1 IP). Weaver has to step up now that both John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar are out for the Angels.

Today's game will be on MLB Audio via the Angels' station, KLAA (and I believe once again, you can listen free), on MLB.TV, and at the MLB.com Mediacenter. Starting tomorrow, the next four games -- exhibitions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and Opening Day on Monday -- will be on WGN-TV. Monday's opener will also be on ESPN2, if you are somewhere that you don't get WGN.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)