As the season winds down, Casey Coleman has made a big statement during his last 2 starts.  Coleman worked into the 6th inning before giving up a home run and RBI double that gave the Padres a 2-0 lead.  Coleman gave up just those 2 ER on 5 hits and 2 walks.  He had 7 strike outs.  In his previous start, Coleman picked up the win over the Brewers with a 6-inning gem against one of the better-hitting lineups in the National League.  Coleman held the Brew Crew to just 1 ER on 2 hits and 3 walks with 8 K’s.

Coleman also broke up Matt Latos’ no hit bid with a 1-out triple in the top of the 6th inning. The Cubs managed just 1 other hit on the night – Starlin Castro’s single to lead off the 7th inning.  Despite stealing 2nd base with nobody out, Carlos Pena, Bryan LaHair and Steve Clevenger could not bring him in.

With their 3rd straight loss, the Cubs fell to 70-90 on the season.

Matt Garza looks to continue his solid end to the 2011 campaign with his last start on Tuesday night.  A win would give him double-digit wins in his 1st full season as a Cubs starter.  Garza has not allowed more than 3 earned runs in any of his last 10 starts dating back to August 3rd – hello ace!!!  Let’s hope he finishes off the great streak with his 10th win on Tuesday…

The Braves topped Casey Coleman and the Cubs 5-4 on Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.  It was the Cubs 3rd straight loss.

Coleman worked 5 innings, giving up 5 ER on 5 hits and 2 walks.  The Braves scored all 5 of their runs in the 4th inning to take a 5-0 lead.  It was Coleman’s 6th loss of the season.

Aramis Ramirez went 5 for 5 on the night with 2 RBI’s and a run scored.

Alfonso Soriano also hit an inside the park solo home run in the Cubs 4-run 5th inning.

With another storm heading towards Chicago, each team knew they had to score early and often to be ahead in a game that was certainly going to be rain-shortened at some point before 9 innings were played.  The Cubs took a 4-1 lead after 1 inning of play courtesy of 2-out, 2-run doubles from Reed Johnson and Alfonso Soriano in a clutch hitting performance.  But Casey Coleman and Justin Berg gave it right back by allowing the Mets to take command with a 5-run 2nd inning.  Coleman recorded only 4 outs in his start — 6 ER on 7 hits and 1 walk.  Why is he still in the rotation?  Manager Mike Quade went with young gun Justin Berg to get Coleman out of the 2nd inning jam, but what did he do?  Berg literally threw 12 pitches – all balls – to walk in 2 runs in a miserable effort.  James Russell came on to save the day and keep the game close by striking out the final 2 batters of the game with the bases loaded and only 1 out.  Sure the Cubs trailed 6-4, but it could have been worse.  With the rain coming, the Cubs knew they needed to score and score soon, but they could never muster anything else off of Dillon Gee the rest of the way.  The game was eventually called after 6 full innings of play.

It was another frustrating loss in another frustrating year for the Cubs…

It looks like the storms have moved through the Chicago area and the next round of storms won’t hit until later tonight.  Casey Coleman will look to build off of a solid start against the Marlins in Florida last week.  Coleman tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings and picked up his 2nd win of the season despite issuing 5 walks in the win.  Coleman will square off against 25-year old Dillon Gee who has been a lifesaver for the Mets in 2011.  Gee is 3-0 with a 3.44 ERA in 8 games this season, 5 of which have been starts.

Let’s Go Cubs – make it 2 in a row.  At 21-25, the Cubs still trail the 1st place St. Louis Cardinals by 7 games in the NL Central race…

I love to be wrong in situations like this, as Casey Coleman led the Cubs to a 2-game sweep of the Marlins in Miami with a convincing 5-1 win.

Coleman picked up his 2nd win of the season, throwing 109 pitches in 5 2/3 scoreless innings.  Manager Mike Quade brought in the recently called up Scott Maine to get Coleman out of trouble in the bottom of the 6th inning after Coleman walked 2 batters with 2 outs in the inning.  Maine made it a little scary but Byrd cuaght Wes Helms’ deep drive to center field to end the inning.

And how about John Grabow — he has given up just 1 ER in his last 10 appearances and he notched his 4th hold of the season with a scoreless 7th inning.  If Grabow can regain the form that made him such an effective reliever before he signed a 3-year free agent deal with the Cubs, the Cubs bullpen will be that much deeper as the season progresses.

Kerry Wood gave up the Marlins only run on a homer to Mike Stanton.  Wood is trending in the exact opposite direction as Grabow — in his last 5 trips to the mound, Wood has 2 blown saves and 2 losses, and has given up 7 runs (3 earned) on 10 hits and 3 walks.  Not good.

Carlos Marmol worked a scoreless 9th inning in a non-save situation.

At the plate, Reed Johnson got the Cubs out to an early lead with an RBI double in the 2nd inning.  Marlon Byrd continues to swing a hot bat.  He had 2 more hits including a 2-run home run in the 4th inning that increased the Cubs lead to 3-0.  And Starlin Castro had 2 hits including a 2-run double in the top of the 9th inning that gave the Cubs some breathing room heading into the bottom of the inning with a 4-run lead.

After an atrocious start to the tough road trip with 2 frustrating losses to the 1st place Reds, it was nice to see the Cubs bounce back against the Marlins.  The Cubs now trail the Cards by 5.5 games in the NL Central and need a 3-game sweep over the Red Sox in Boston this weekend in order to get back within 1 game of the .500 mark…

The final 2 games of the Cubs-Cards series this week were blowouts, as the Cards took 2 of 3 at Wrigley Field.  The Cards are now 22-16 on the season and they lead the Reds by 1.5 games and the Cubs by a full 5 games in the NL Central race.

Matt Garza got his 1st win of the season at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night as the Cubs won 11-4.

The Cards bounced back today against Casey Coleman winning 9-1.  Jaime Garcia won his 5th game of the season and lowered his ERA down to 1.89.  Coleman’s numbers continue to move in the wrong direction.  At 1-3, Coleman now sports a 1.95 WHIP and 7.22 ERA.  Not good…

The Cubs got some great pitching over the weekend against the Reds, but only came away with 1 win against their Division Rivals.  Not good… not good at all.  It is the same old alarming trend as the Cubs continue to fail to come through with the clutch hit to break open a close game.

The Red Sox stopped their 3-game skid with 2 impressive wins over the Twins at Fenway Park.

In Saturday’s 3-2 win, Casey Coleman gave the Cubs every chance it needed to win.  Coleman worked 6 solid innings, giving up 2 ER on 4 hits and 3 walks with 6 K’s.  After Coleman allowed the 1st 2 batters to reach base in the 7th inning, Kerry Wood couldn’t limit the damage and allowed the Reds to score 2 runs on a fielder’s choice and single.  That gave the Reds a 2-1 lead.

It came down to the 9th inning trailing 2-1 as Carlos Pena came through with the clutch home run to right field that tied the game at 1.  After Blake DeWitt’s single, it looked like the game was over as Jeff Baker’s double to deep center field would have easily scored DeWitt from 1st.  But the ball bounced over the well and was ruled a ground rule double since the center fielder Daniel Stubbs never made contact with the ball before it left the field of play.  That put the pressure on Kosuke Fukudome with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs.  But Fukudome lived up to the challenge, stroking a no-doubt, line drive single up the middle to score DeWitt with the winning run.  Marcos Mateo picked up his 1st major league win by pitching a scoreless inning and a third.

On Mother’s Day on Sunday, Ryan Dempster made his second straight good start — 7 innings, 2 ER on 5 hits and no walks.  But this time, he did not come away with the win, as the Cubs bats went silent against Johnny Cueto who was making his 1st start of the season.  The Cubs managed just 6 hits and 2 walks during the game against Cueto and 4 Cubs relievers.  Jeff Samardzija worked his 9th straight appearance in which he has not allowed a run.  Carlos Marmol, who had not pitched since May 3rd against the Dodgers worked a scoreless 9th inning.  Starlin Castro continues to struggle even after getting the day off on Saturday.  Castro has only 2 hits in his last 25 at-bats, a streak spanning 5 games.  His batting average has dropped 48 points down to .300 during that stretch.

The Cubs are now 15-18 on the season and they trail the Cards by 4 games in the NL Central race.  The Cards come to town for 3 big games this week as the Cubs really have their backs up against the wall yet again.

The Cubs lost another frustrating 1-run game on Friday afternoon – 5-4 to the Reds.  The Cubs are now 4-6 in 1-run games and this will have to improve if they expect to stay in the NL race in 2011.

The Cubs blew so many scoring chances in the game – this really should have been a blowout Cubs win:

3rd inning – 1st and 3rd with 1 out, Starlin Castro grounded out to 3rd base and a run didn’t score. They did score a run on a passed ball, but it was a blown chance to have a big inning and the Reds answered with Jay Bruce’s 3-run home run in the top of the 4th inning to take a 3-1 lead.  It was a HUGE momentum swing…

4th inning – Bases loaded with nobody out and Geovany Soto grounds into a double-play.  Sure the Cubs got a run, but with the pitcher coming up, they only got 1.

5th inning – 3 singles in a row scored Darwin Barney, but then another costly double-play erases a 2 on, 1 out rally.

6th inning – Geovany Soto singles home a run with nobody out.  That knocks Edinson Volquez out of the 5-4 game.  Reed Johnson enters the game and is promptly hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.  But Kosuke Fukudome struck out, Barney popped out to the catcher and Castro weakly grounded out to shortstop as the Cubs blow another golden opportunity to blow the game wide open.

The Cubs did score a single run in 4 consecutive innings, but they should have scored about 8 or 9 runs given the chances.  If the Cubs continue to fail to come through with the clutch hit with runners in scoring position, it is going to be a LONG season for the north siders.

Matt Garza was the tough-luck recipient of the Cubs lack of hitting, but he did not pitch the game the Cubs needed against the Reds.  Garza gave up 5 ER on 6 hits and 2 walks and he suffered his 4th loss because of it.

The Cubs fell to 14-17 on the season and trail the 1st place Cards by 4 games in the NL Central.

Casey Coleman looks to help the Cubs rally for a win against the Reds today at Wrigley.  Coleman has been downright bad of late – 11 ER on 12 walks and 14 hits in his last 3 starts – a streak spanning 13 1/3 innings pitched.  Coleman is 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA and 1.96 WHIP.  Please please – let’s get Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner back in the starting rotation!

The Cubs fell just short of getting a series win for the 1st time since they took 2 of 3 from the Padres at Wrigley Field back on April 20th.

Casey Coleman suffered another loss giving up 4 ER on 4 hits and 5 walks in just 5 innings of work. Coleman is 1-2 with a 7.36 ERA and a 1.96 WHIP.  In 18 1/3 innings pitched in 4 starts, Coleman has given up 15 ER on 23 hits and 13 walks.  Why is this guy still in the rotation?  Isn’t there someone else in the minors that can give the Cubs more meaningful innings?

Geovany Soto, Darwin Barney and Marlon Byrd each had 2 hits in the Cubs loss.  Soto had 2 doubles in the game, the 2nd of which cut the DBacks lead from 4-1 to 4-3 in the top of the 7th inning.  The Cubs then stranded Soto at 2nd base in the 7th.  After stranding the tying run in scoring position in the 8th inning too, Carlos Pena almost put the Cubs ahead in the top of the 9th with a deep drive to right field that Upton caught right at the wall.  Marlon Byrd had doubled to lead off the inning and moved over to 3rd base with only 1 out.  The DBacks then walked to Geovany Soto to get to a pinch-hitter.  Jeff Baker only needed to hit a fly ball to tie the game but instead he swung at J.J. Putz’s first pitch and grounded into a game-ending double play.  Not good.

The Cubs have only won 3 series all season long and have a 12-15 record.  Lucky for them that no one else in the NL Central has put together a good stretch of baseball to try to gain a little space between the rest of the pack.  Despite the slow start, the Cubs trail the 1st place Cards by only 3.5 games.  Every time Casey Coleman and James Russell take the mound, you know the Cubs are likely going to lose, so knowing that Randy Wells and Andrew Cashner are both on the mend and hopefully back in the mix in the next few weeks can only mean improved play for the club.  After these 3 final road games against the Dodgers in L.A., the Cubs open up a critical 9-game homestand against the Cincinnati Reds, Cardinals and San Francisco Giants which could leave them still right in the thick of things or getting ready for 2012…

Mother nature helped the Cubs out on Wednesday – the forecasted rains caused the Cubs and MLB to re-schedule the Cubs-Rockies series finale to a date when the weather should be just a little bit nicer (hopefully) – Monday June 27th.  It was an off-day for both teams. The Cubs play in Kansas City the day before and will continue with a home stand at Wrigley Field.  The Rockies play the Yankees in New York the day before and will stop in Chicago to make up the game on Monday before heading home for a scheduled home stand.

The Cubs used the day off for some rest and for some early travel to Arizona where they begin a 7-game road trip against the DBacks.  The Cubs will skip Casey Coleman in the rotation to keep the 3 “aces” on their scheduled 4 days between starts.  Ryan Dempster (1-2, 7.63 ERA) , Carlos Zambrano (2-1, 5.28 ERA) and Matt Garza (0-3, 4.11 ERA) will start the 1st 3 games of the series while Coleman will pitch in the series finale on Sunday.  The Cubs have not named who will start their game on Monday night against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.  Looking at the numbers of the Cubs 3 “aces”, it is shocking that the Cubs even have a 10-13 record.  Crazy stuff once again for the Cubs in what is shaping up to be another LONG season…