How Low Is Too Low?

This feels like a new low point to the season. Todd Walker got the lone RBI today, which just emphasizes how utterly poor the team is hitting collectively because Walker was supposed to be the guy coming back and providing the extra RBI. I mean, against a guy (Jennings) with an earned run average over 7 who leads the league in walks, the Cubs managed one run and only two walks -- the first walk finally coming with two outs in the seventh.

This is now how it was supposed to happen. We're not waiting for people to come back from injury any more. We're just waiting for guys to drive in runs.

In the loss column, the Cubs are 8 back from the Cardinals. It's not even June. HELL. It's starting to look like it will take three solid weeks of overachieving to catch up. Not that these weeks all have to come at once, but the urgency I've been feeling is ramped up tonight.

Unless they need to rub a chicken bone on their bats, I'm done guessing as to why these guys aren't hitting. A leaky lineup is a lineup where teams can avoid Cubs threats by pitching around weak spots. Right now, the Cubs lineup offers way too many leaks. Something is just plain wrong.

Baseball is nothing if it is not a game that you can follow strictly by numbers, by statistics, and at some point the Cubs have to bottom out. Right? How much lower can they go? When does the evening out process begin?

A few weeks ago, I was afraid of .500 gaining its own momentum. This happens to baseball teams more often than we realize, I think, where a team gets complacent about winning just here and there. I was particularly afraid of it happening to the Cubs because they had excuses available. They didn't have to invoke the excuses -- and good teams don't -- but the excuses were there.

It's not about giving excuses during interviews, either. I couldn't care less about what they say to the press because nearly everyone has learned to say that they will "take it one day at a time." It's about playing like you believe you can win, like you want to win. Only now they're 5-5 in their last ten games, 9-11 in their last 20. That's the momentum of mediocrity.

Today, the Cubs didn't play like they want to win. Now, I hope they get angry. Angry at themselves. I hope they're done with excuses. Enough. Just hit the damn ball. It's a simple game, or at least it can be, and right now I think they need to figure out how to play it that way. Easier said than done, I suppose.