Cubbies 4 Buccos 3

Last night's game boils down to one thing. Jose Mesa should not have been allowed to pitch to Derek Lee. Coming into the 9th, I noted out loud that we were in trouble, Mesa has been giving up a run or two lately almost every time out and the Cubs had the top of the order up. Look at Mesa's game log in May. After picking up his 9th save and dropping his ERA to 1.00, he'd given up a run in three of his last five appearences, including the loss to Milwaukee on Friday. Derek Lee, on the other hand, has been the hottest hitter in the league all year. I know walking Lee puts the winning run on base, but Jeromy Burnitz was up next. He's slow (double play candidate) and he has the lowest batting average in the league after the 6th inning. Of course I can't find the link to back that claim up anymore (if I do find it, I'll post it, if anyone else read the same thing I did and does in face have the link please send it to me), but I know I read it somewhere in the last two weeks. After Lee's homer what did Burnitz do? Sharply hit a grounder to second. Why with a runner on first that could have been a game ending double play. Maybe it wouldn't have been the conventional thing to do, but sometimes managers have to think outside the box. Let's face it, Mesa is old. He came out of the gates with a great start (one run in his first 9 appearences) but since then has given up 5 runs in the next six showings. This is a bad sign. He ran out of gas around July last year and from then out was making Mike Williams saves (putting the go ahead run in scoring position with no outs before using smoke and mirrors to somehow get three outs without the run scoring). A huge deal was made about how great he was and how vital he was to the team, and the truth may be that we should have traded him at the end of April, because that may be his peak value for the whole year. It was clear last night he didn't have the stuff to get Derek Lee (threw him a cutter, his best pitch, and Lee pulverized it over the notch in left center) and when you're 39 years old you don't get better through the year