The Cubs lost 5-4 to the Rays in St. Petersburg, Florida, last night, their second loss in a row to the suddenly-powerful team from Tampa Bay.

I know, I know, that's not what you want to talk about this morning, you just want to hear more about Carlos Zambrano's shoulder problem. The answer is that we don't know anything more right now than we did last night; Z is flying back to Chicago today to have a MRI performed. After that we'll know more. Obviously, if Z misses more than a start or two the Cubs will have to suck it up and other pitchers will have to take up the slack, and/or they'll have to make a deal for pitching help (I'm sure this will start the A. J. Burnett rumors going into high gear).

But until we know more, the sky-is-falling crowd will just have to wait until they declare this season "over". The Cubs still maintain a 3 1/2 game lead over the Cardinals -- you think the Cubs are having a tough time, St. Louis just lost two straight to the woeful Royals -- and they did keep battling last night, just as they did the night before; Geovany Soto's 9th-inning HR off Troy Percival cut the Rays' lead to 5-4 and they did get the tying run on base when Mark DeRosa walked, but that was it. Michael Wuertz did a good job of keeping the game within reach till the 9th.

The real issue, then, was DeRosa's drop of a fly ball in the first inning, allowing an unearned run to score. This wound up the difference in the game. Z actually threw pretty well, except for the third inning when the Rays had four straight hits and five hits in all, scoring four runs. The shoulder problem, possibly in evidence since mid-May when Z "slept wrong", didn't get worse, says Z in a quote from the Paul Sullivan article above, till the last batter he faced:

"There was a funny pitch that I felt something in my arm, and then the last pitch I threw in the game to Hinske, I dropped my arm a lot because I couldn't go back to the top of my arm," Zambrano said.

So we wait. And the Cubs may also need outfield help, because Jim Edmonds has a foot problem. Edmonds, hitting .300/.342/.500 in 70 Cub at-bats, has actually been a useful contributor and -- I can't believe I'm writing this -- if he's out for any length of time, the Cubs would miss his bat.

Wondrous and yet strange season, this is. One thing I like: Lou's decision to bat Kosuke Fukudome leadoff while Alfonso Soriano is out -- despite the fact that the normally patient Dome swung at the first pitch he saw last night and grounded out.

A couple quick notes on my tour of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame yesterday. In addition to entire floors dedicated to special exhibits on the Doors and the Beatles movie "Help", the Rock Hall also has a large current exhibit on baseball music entitled "Take Me Out: Baseball Rocks!" It covers music from all musical eras about baseball, from DeWolf Hopper's early 20th Century rendition of "Casey At The Bat", to a forgettable 1969 song recorded by Ernie Banks called "Teamwork", and a large exhibit focusing on the local team, the Indians, and their 1997 AL Championship team. There's a place where you can listen to various baseball songs; Steve Goodman's "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" is included (but no "Go Cubs Go").

I was a bit disappointed when going into, or more correctly, attempting to go into, the actual "Hall of Fame", where all the inductees have their signatures etched into glass. It was roped off and closed -- explanation: the 2008 inductees' names are being etched. Lame explanation, IMO: to close this off for a full day (which is what one worker there said), so that someone like me, who is not likely to return to Cleveland any time soon, can't see it, isn't right. They should do this sort of work in overnight hours.

So, I'm back home in Chicago, ready to gear up for the first Cubs/White Sox series beginning tomorrow, but first, the business of salvaging the final game of the Rays series tonight. Do that and the road trip will be split 3-3, which would be fine with me. Game thread will be up around 3:30 this afternoon.

CLEVELAND -- I missed about half of last night's 3-2 Cubs loss to the Rays, still on the road back to Chicago from Toronto and Cooperstown, but arrived at my hotel room in Cleveland (a convenient halfway stop, where I'm going to check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this morning) just in time to follow the last few innings -- where there were just about enough woulda/shoulda/coulda moments to make it a Cub win.

Didn't happen, and you both can and can't blame Reed Johnson. The bunt he laid down with two out in the 9th and the tying run on third base was, in fact, an excellent idea, and it took one of the better defensive plays by Rays 3B Evan Longoria to throw Reed out and end the game. If the play isn't made, Kosuke Fukudome -- who had to hold up at third on Troy Percival's second pitch that got away from catcher Dioner Navarro -- probably scores the tying run, or at the very least, the bases are loaded with two out.

Many of us were reminded of a play like this made by Cub whipping boy Neifi Perez on May 18, 2006 against the Nationals at Wrigley Field. There are several differences, however: first, the Cubs were trailing that game by TWO runs, not one; the tying run, therefore, was on first, not third; and Perez' bunt was a poor one, picked up right away by Chad Cordero, who made a routine play out of it and an easy out, resulting in a deserved cascade of boos for Neifi. (Look at the boxscore, too -- what a horrid lineup, and for the life of me I can't remember why Aramis Ramirez wasn't starting that day.)

You CAN blame Johnson for trying to steal third, and getting thrown out, with two out in the top of the seventh. Johnson is a standup guy, though, and takes the blame:

"That's a bad play on my part," Johnson said. "I got the green light in that situation, but with two outs and the top of the order coming [up], you have to make sure you can make it. It was a bad job on my part.

"Who knows? If I make it there, or I don't run in that situation, [Ryan] Theriot might get a hit and we have our three and four hitters up," Johnson said. "It's not a good time to get thrown out -- everybody knows the cardinal rule of getting thrown out at third base with two outs. Nobody felt worse than I did when it happened."

Incidentally, that game recap link above says that Johnson collided with Rays 1B Willy Aybar on the bunt play and was a bit shaken up.

The rest of the story of this game is: Ryan Dempster threw well enough, but threw far too many pitches (107) in five innings, and so the bullpen had to go back to its not-so-good routine of throwing half the game. Neal Cotts, who has been good so far, wasn't, allowing a solo HR to Longoria and then making a throwing error that helped lead to what proved to be the decisive third Tampa Bay run.

The good news is that the Cubs beat the guy who is Tampa Bay's best pitcher (sorry, James Shields, but Scott Kazmir is exactly that), and there are two games left in this series, and the Cubs lost the first game at Toronto before winning the next two.

I spent the morning yesterday at the Baseball Hall of Fame, and could easily have spent the entire day, or two days. There is so much to see there that I can't possibly give it justice in a simple post here. What I will say is that the Hall has been significantly improved since I last was there in 1988 -- the inside seems almost new, totally renovated; the actual "Hall of Fame", where the player plaques are, has been enlarged and is dignified and classy, and the exhibits are comprehensive and have things that you walk by and say, "Wow! That's cool that they have that," or, "Man, I remember THAT game!" If you have not gone to Cooperstown -- and you have to GO there, it's not somewhere you casually stop into, because there's no easy way to get there -- you absolutely have to go sometime in your life, it is a must-see for every baseball fan.

There is one statement that the Hall has made, perhaps without intentionally doing so (or maybe it IS intentional). They have a small gallery where career leaderboards are kept (and, according to a sign, updated weekly). There are both all-time boards and boards showing leaders among active players. The sign mentioning the weekly updates says that players on the "active" board will remain there until they have either announced their retirement or not played for a full season.

Barry Bonds is not listed on the active leaderboards, even though by the above criteria he should be. Do they know something we don't?

Onward. We'll get 'em tonight. Heading home this afternoon after seeing the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.