Bump in the road

The only Cub that really showed up Wednesday against Brewers was Aramis Ramirez, who homered and is now 6-10 in his last three games. Maybe that isn't fair to Jason Marquis, who pitch very well after a rocky 1st inning that put the Beermakers ahead 3-0, but thos 3 runs were all Milwaukee needed in a 6-2 victory over the Cubs. The magic number froze--hopefully for just a day--at 4.

The Brewers finally awoke from a multi-game slumber, but the Cubs bats fell asleep. Ben Sheets left after just two innings with an injury, and I'm sure I was not the only one salivating at the idea of the Cubs getting several innings of cuts at the often ineffective Brewer bullpen. So, what happened?

Perhaps it's crazy to think megatively at this point, but the Cubs looked like they gave up after the Brewers got ahead early, which is very much how they looked in some of their losses earlier this month. Hopefully, they can straighten things out today and clinch tomorrow when I'm at the game against the Cards.

The White Sox fell asleep, too, with the exception of Clayton Richard, in losing 5-1. Going into the second game of the series against the Yanks, many of us probably hoped the Sox could get five or six not too horrible innings out of Richard, but the kids gave a good show, limiting the dying Yanks to just two runs in 6.2 solid innings.

Junior and O.C. had two hits each, but the lone Sox run scored on a JeDye ground out. Later, Linebrink came in and made share the game was good and lost by giving up a pair of homers. Maybe Richard can be counted on in the pstseason if Linebrink can't.

The Piranhas lost again in Cleveland, and the magic number goes down to 9, but we're not so, so happy. The Sox missed a great chance to get to the three-game 1st place cushion SBW requires to feel safe before the Sox head to Minnesota.