well you have suffered enough
and warred with yourself
it's time that you've wontake this sinking boat
and point it home
we've still got time
raise your hopeful voice
you had the choice
you've made it now
I happened to be out last night for part of last night's game and heard that song, the hauntingly beautiful ballad sung by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová from the movie "Once", which, incidentally, if you haven't seen, you should.
Fits, doesn't it? What more can be said about the Cubs' sixth straight loss, 10-2 to the Reds?
Doom & gloom thinking: for those of you who weren't around in 1969, this is how it felt. Note that I am in no way comparing the two teams or the two situations -- these Cubs are, after all, still four games in first place and in the driver's seat; but the feeling I have as a fan is the same. Feels like they'll never win again, although intellectually you know that isn't true.
Positive thinking: it also felt this way in 1984, when the Cubs, after running up a huge (9.5 game) lead in mid-September, lost five in a row by a combined score of 41-17 and looked just about as bad as they do now. They righted the ship by sweeping a doubleheader in St. Louis and went on to clinch the division.
More positive thinking: the last time the Cubs lost a game by eight runs and looked really bad doing it (13-5 to Washington on August 22), they followed it with a seven-game winning streak.
Right now I'd settle for one win; Alfonso Soriano put it best:"We've struggled the last week, the last five, six games," Alfonso Soriano said. "We have to figure out how to get out of this. I know it's going to come. Good teams get out of slumps. When we come back, we'll be better.
"We just have to win one game," Soriano said. "That's all it takes. One game. It's very sad. Everybody's not happy."
"Everybody's not happy". Truer words were never spoken. There's not much point in recapping the play from last night's disaster. Ted Lilly got hit hard. Jon Lieber, whose ERA in GABP this season is now 20.25 (nine earned runs in four innings, with five homers allowed), got crushed. The only Cub who had a good night was Koyie Hill, who singled and doubled and drove in a run.
Positive thinking: Angel Guzman and Bob Howry threw scoreless innings. Guzman could be a real big help this month.
Seriously. What more can you say about a game where the manager and the first base coach got lost driving from Chicago to Cincinnati? You couldn't make this up:
"Matty was driving," [Lou] Piniella said, "but we actually 'Googled' the trip, and we were 'Googled' to East Liverpool, Pa. Who in the heck knows? On the sheet we had, it was 'Cincinnati to Liverpool.' I was thinking, I was in Cincinnati three years, and I didn't remember a 'Liverpool' around the area."
At that, you can only smile and laugh through your tears, right? Relax this afternoon, shake it off as the players will. This team is too good to have this last more than rightfreakingnow. They'll come out of it.