This is the only day game on this road trip; with the 0-5 record so far this trip (all in night games), the Cubs have sunk under .500 at night (11-12), while maintaining a winning record in day games (10-8).
Yes, I'm grasping at straws. Wouldn't you?
Still don't want Mark DeRosa back? His numbers through yesterday -- .260/.326/.438 -- are at least approaching his career averages, and his 30 RBI would lead the Cubs, by a considerable margin (Alfonso Soriano has 25).
Rick Morrissey's column contains a clue about the real source of Rich Harden's injury:
His quote in reaction to the injury was pretty amazing too:
"It hit me out of nowhere."
No. Injuries don't come out of nowhere for Harden. They come out of everywhere. This is a man who could get hurt falling asleep.
Never mind the fact that the last sentence is just silly; the rest of the Morrissey column is the usual nonsensical blather about "how did we not see this coming", etc. The clue to the reality is Harden's quote, which perhaps has more honesty than Lou might like. Harden had not missed a start all year -- although he was pushed back a day or two a couple of times, mainly, I think, just to pace him -- and threw fine last Sunday with no complaints of any problems after that start.
I think this "injury" is simply a convenient way for Lou to get an extra look at Randy Wells. David Patton should go, either to Iowa (if the Cubs can make a deal) or back to the Rockies (if they can't) and Jake Fox should be called up, so the Cubs can actually get some benefit from having the 11-man staff that Lou has now used for 14 days while Patton has not thrown a single pitch in a game. When Harden comes back, Fox can head back to Iowa till he is needed to DH in the interleague games in late June.
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Today's pitching matchup is a rematch of the rain-shortened 7 1/2 inning game at Wrigley Field on May 13. The Cubs hit four homers off Young (Ryan Theriot had two, Geovany Soto and Alfonso Soriano one each); the Padres hit two off Lilly (both by Adrian Gonzalez, who homered on Friday off Z, but had only a single last night. Keep the ball in the ballpark and the Cubs, who scored six runs off Young on May 13, should have a pretty good shot at breaking out of the offensive slump.
It's on WGN today -- nationally -- so you can watch... if you dare. For today's other games see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Overflow comment threads will post today at 4 pm, 5 pm and 5:45 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.