All right, after a pathetically half hearted effort in game one of the series,  the Cubs came out in games two and three against the Washington Nationals and played like the great team they are.

A Few highlights:

• With a 4-0 lead in the top of the fifth in game two, the Cubs were patient at the plate and manufactured an additional run.  A complete contrast to game one, same inning, same lead and the combination of Theriot, Ramirez and Lee, with only four pitches were retired.  I think that inning took five minutes.
• In game two Soriano actually hustled a single into a double.
• DeRosa four straight games with a home run. First time he has done this in his career. The home run today was to the opposite field and into a brisk wind.
• Game three, Fukudome coming off the bench, hits a line shot home run into the right field bleachers.
• Game Two Ramirez hits two home runs.
• With this series win the Cubs have won the last seven rubber games in a row.
• Also the Cubs have won eight straight series; the first time done since 1937.
• Rich Harden was smoking with a matching career high 11 k’s. 
• With the win today the Cubs go a season high 30 games over 500 and are the first team in the Majors to reach the 80 win mark.

The last two games of this series were a sharp contrast to game one and it was nice to see that the Cubs complacency only last one game.  It’s a little PA now, they travel to Pittsburgh then back home against the Phillies to finish what has been a great month of August.  The intensity level needs to stay high in order to keep the Brewers off our tails.  Next Century Is Here.

I am fully aware that any team can beat any other team on any day in any park, but are the Cubs aware of this? Because what the Chicago Cubs did today was put on a clinic on how to lose a game by thinking just the shear act of walking onto a field can beat a weaker team. 

This is the Major League guys!  Wake up, there are not going to be any free games.  And while you guys are blowing smoke up your own back sides and get slapped around by a team 38 games under five hundred the teams chasing you are taking care of business and gaining ground. That’s right, while the Cards are spanking the Braves 18-3 and the Brewers are beating up on the Pirates 10-4, the Cubs are getting treated like a red-headed step child by the Washington Nationals, losing 13-5.  Did anyone in the world have the Nationals in the 13 run pool today?  I’m just asking because this team is last in runs scored and second to last in home runs in the Majors.

I know I said earlier that any team can beat any other team.  So why am I so pissed off?  Because with a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, Theriot, Lee and Ramirez, the meat of our order, are retired with three pitches.  Hello! Take a PITCH!  Make the pitcher work.  The game is nine innings long not five.

What happens next is the anti-Cub inning.  The Nationals approach the inning like they are the team 29 games over five hundred. Working the pitcher, taking pitches, hitting the  ball where it is pitched and eventually hitting the big grand slam that just put the Cubs on their heels for the rest of the game.

I got news for this team, losing to a weaker team while the teams behind you are winning is the same as losing to them.   It’s not rocket science, when you lose the teams behind you have a chance to catch you.  So when you have an opponent that on paper you should beat, go out and beat them!   We haven’t won it all in 100 years, this team\organization has no right to act as if their mere presence is enough to beat a little league team let alone another Major League team. 

It started with Soriano’s stroll to first a couple days ago, when he thought the ball he hit 220 feet was a home run, and it appears to have infected the whole team.  Well, find the antidote, because you guys better start acting like Next Century Is Here, and soon! Because before you know it some other die hard fan will be writing some nonsense in what ever replaces the blog in the year 2108 about how the Cubs are going to win it all because it is the 200 year anniversary since the last time they went all the way.