Open Thread: Cubs vs. Padres, Saturday 5/6, 9:05 CT

Let's...

Get...

Some...

RUNS!!

Or even ONE run. That'd be a start.

It's even worse than you think. The Cubs haven't homered in seven games (since Friday, April 28, when Ronny Cedeno and Jacque Jones went deep). The last time they had a HR drought that long was seven years ago, eight games, oddly, at a similar time of year, April 25-May 3, 1999.

Mike Piazza didn't play yesterday -- if he does, and if Juan Pierre can get on base, look for him to run like crazy. Piazza has thrown out only three of 25 runners who have tried to steal on him so far this year.

Today's Starting Pitchers

S. Marshall Cubs vs. J. Peavy Padres 2-0 W-L 2-3 3.45 ERA 4.58 20 SO 28 8 BB 8 3 HR 4 vs. SD -- vs. Cubs

The Cubs have won all five games Marshall has started. The glass-half-empty crowd will say that he's gotten a lot of run support and faced two bad teams. I say, so what? He's started five and the Cubs have won all of them. They count in the standings.

Peavy is usually death on the Cubs -- 1-0, 2.50 in three lifetime starts -- but he, like Carlos Zambrano, is off to a slow start after pitching in the WBC. The numbers are deceiving -- he has four good starts and two really bad ones, resulting in the 4.58 ERA. The only current Cub who has more than two lifetime hits off Peavy is... Neifi Perez.

Discuss amongst yourselves.