The Cubs went out west and promptly got swept by the Dodgers and Padres, running their losing streak to 8 games. Jeff Samardzija took advantage of PetCo Park by allowing only one run in 7 innings, but the Padres took advantage of a woeful Cubs offense by shutting them out.
‘‘The starting pitchers have pitched really well,’’ manager Dale Sveum said, refuting the idea of a post-deadline hangover. ‘‘I think they’ve all filled in pretty admirably for the three guys we lost [including Matt Garza to injury]. Bottom line is we stopped scoring runs.’’
I think Dale forgot about the Brooks Raley game. Spellcheck seems to understand that the rest of the season is going to be a prolonged struggle.
‘‘I don’t think we’re going to look at that too much,’’ Samardzija (7-10) said when asked about the significance of the second-longest losing streak of the season.
‘‘Obviously you want to win every day, but we’re going to learn a lot here in the next month and a half. We play some really good teams. We’re going to see what we’re made of as a team.
‘‘We know it’s not going to be easy. We’re not here to make excuses, either.’’
Even if he did get frustrated enough to break a bat over his knee after striking out.
‘‘Just felt good to snap it like a toothpick,’’ said Samardzija, who smiled at the comparisons to Zambrano. ‘‘I watched him as a kid. I saw how he did it.’’
Will the media lambaste him? Is Dale Sveum sick of his childish antics?
‘‘Right now, when you start losing games and a lot of things aren’t going your way, you’re going to see some frustrations come out,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s part of the game. It’s OK to see guys with emotions and fire. Those are the guys you want around.’’
Unless they’re Venezuelan.
Meanwhile, Starlin Castro has been struggling at the plate. He’s hitting .200 in his last 38 games. Is he broken?
“I want to finish strong,” Castro said Wednesday. “Every [season], I finish strong. Every time, I put it in my mind that the last month, if you don’t finish strong, my family doesn’t eat. I put that in my mind. I need my family to eat these two months, like they eat in the first four months. I put that in my mind all the time. I’ll do it for sure.”
I’m not sure that Starlin understands that he gets paid the same no matter what his performance is. Or maybe Dale is lying to him to motivate him. But Dale has some suggestions for him going forward:
“There’s so many moving parts that are going on that don’t need to go on,” Sveum said of Castro’s swing. “There’s not a good base on a consistent basis. … There’s so much movement going on, it’s going to be hard to be consistent. He has to narrow things down to be able to use his hand-eye coordination.”
Sveum said Castro, who led the National League in hits last season, doesn’t need to alter too much but may become a winter project.
“It’s not like a big change — it’s making him understand he doesn’t need all this extra movement going on to succeed,” Sveum said.
I’ll bet Starlin is a good dancer, though.
I’m glad that Dale has designated Castro as his winter project, because it’s going to be a long,long witer…
Thank you Spellcheck- that’s “winter.”
They are filming a Bollywood “Fast & Furious” outside my office today. Winning.
Be sure to get good video of the pre-chase dance off. Oh, and go raid their catering. mmmmm. Gulab Jamun.
Um…I didn’t know your office was in India.
I take the poor but virtuous hero will win in the end?
I’ve benched Starlin Castro on my fantasy team again…so expect him to start hitting again soon.
Off-Topic: I’m watching the live coverage of the US-Japan women’s soccer game, and people are arguing with each other. Basically,anyone who says that any of the US female players are not playing 100% are being called unpatriotic, and they’ve actually pulled a thread due to the name-calling. I noticed this yesterday in a LA Times article on a losing US track athlete. She complained that people should have been supporting her “since I am representing the US,” instead of pointing out her self-promotion and love of the spotlight. Is this a Gen Y thing? Or is this what US athletes now expect?
I’m assuming the track athlete you are referring to is Lolo Jones…who has been, somewhat unfairly, tagged as the Anna Kournikova of track and field. Lolo has gone out and “promoted” herself quite a bit, and since most of the world only thinks that the track and field world revolves only around the Olympics, the media has felt that Jones is pretty much a pinup who never won anything because she failed to medal in both the 2008 and 2012 games. Unfortunately, the media really doesn’t care to realize that Jones has won a ton of big meets in her career including a couple of World Championships…the last one being a couple years ago I believe. The criticism of here is quite unfair because unlike Anna Kournakova, she’s actually won something…and not just something, but a World Championship.
Lolo has helped create the monster, though, as she has been a cover girl for Track and Field for the last 4 years or so. She also hasn’t had a very good season this year and just barely qualified for the Olympics in the first place…which is a big slip for someone who until recently would have been the favorite to win the hurdles coming into London.
It’s just a good think she doesn’t play baseball in Chicago.
And, besides, she’s no McKayla Maroney.
Lolo is also a chronic over-sharer on social media. You can’t put yourself out there that much voluntarily and then complain that people are looking at you, which is pretty much what she did.
Btw, i’m stuck at soccer practice. Can anyone do a game thread?
Nope. I’m making pickles tonight.
Thats among my favorite of your lines, doc
Why did I think you’d like that?
Fine, we’ll use this one. Game get delayed? Because I got dumped on.
Gameday literally went from “warmup” to the Cubs being down 1-0 in the space of 10 seconds.
That sounds about right…
I see Volstad is pitching….
Man… Watching Washington beat the Astros and I have to say, the Houston situation is pathetic. We think the Cubs are bad. The fans have stopped showing up. There appear to be 2,000 people in the stands and you can hear individual conversations on the broadcast.
I’ve been telling you people this for months.
This game is uglier than . . well, something pretty ugly.
Usain Bolt >>>>>> Cubs
I mean . . DUH.
Track and Field is awesome.
I’m going to be visiting my parents this weekend and Soler will be in the next town over on Saturday night.
Hmmmmm.
Are you doing to invite him over for dinner?
So the cubs have manged to tie the game…
Cubs now lead 5-3!
Marmol is now in-good or bad ?
Cubs win!
It’s a Festivus miracle!