Game 152: Reds 5 – Cubs 2

Reds 69-82, -9.5
Cubs 79-73, -0.0

POTG: RP Carlos Marmol (1.2 IP, K, 1 marooned)
Runner Up: 2B Mark DeRosa (2 H, BB), CF Jacque Jones (H, RBI)

NO POWER = NO WINS. Forget coming back on three days starts or which bullpen guys were used when, if the Cubs can’t do anything more than hit singles, they’re probably not going to win too many games. They ran up against a good pitcher on a good night, so I wouldn’t be so worired about this if it wasn’t a trend.

I don’t know that you can definitively say three days of rest was the reason Z wasn’t any good. It appeared to be both a pitch choice issue (relying on only one) and a mechanical issue (because he couldn’t get the others over), both of which could happen on normal rest. Maybe the missing day threw him off, but he didn’t run out of gas early because he was short a day – he got better as the game went along and he got into a comfort zone. Z just wasn’t comfortable earlier on.

I do know that you can say I’ve been using the word definitively waaaaay too much.

Theriot in September: 167/243/258. Something’s wrong here. Cedeno could give you those numbers, which wouldn’t really help anything. Getting back to average at shortstop would help a bit, but it’s going to have to come internally.

I wouldn’t oppose giving Soriano a day off, but I think they’re going to just go with him with the off days.