The Braves shut out the Cubs 3-0 on Monday night at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are now 56-72 and they trail the Brewers by 20 games in the NL Central race.

The Cubs offensive woes hurt tough-luck loser Ryan Dempster.  The Cubs stranded 15 runners in the game, including 11 in the 1st 6 innings alone. Despite 9 hits and 7 walks, the Cubs could not push even 1 run across the board. Aramis Ramirez had 3 hits and Carlos Pena had 2 hits in the loss.

Dempster worked 6 solid innings, notching his 16th quality start of the season.  He gave up just 3 ER on 6 hits and 3 walks, while striking out 8.

The bullpen continued its solid work – James Russell, Jeff Samardzija and Kerry Wood combined for 3 scoreless innings and 5 K’s to keep the Cubs in the game.

Mike Quade benched Starlin Castro for his lack of effort in Sunday night’s loss to the Cards.  Check out more here –