Cubs 3 Pirates 2- Time to shelve the Table

It was nice while it lasted, but Jose Mesa is done. He's been throwing balloons up to the plate this month and it's caught up to him. He looks like a fat old man on the mound struggling for breath. His fastball, which hit 95-96 in April is consistently in the 92-93 range right now. Most importantly, he's given up 7 runs in his last 7 appearences and we've lost three of the last four times he's taken the mound. Let's face it, a closer that can only hold a two run lead isn't a closer. If a 39 year old was playing first base and having a decent season we'd be screaming bloody murder to let someone younger do it. Same goes for any other position on the field. There are younger people in our bullpen that can do what Mesa has done in the last two weeks. You can say that I'm premature in calling for Mesa's head, but come on. The man is 39 years old. He's not the closer of the future. He shouldn't be the closer of next week either. Let Gonzalez close. See what Vogelsong can do out of the bullpen when you use him on a regular basis rather than pitch him every two weeks and then assume he can't pitch because he gets shelled every time out. We've been through Mike Williams before, lets nip this in the bud now before it happens again.

On another note from today's game, we wonder why Kip Wells goes out to the mound every game feeling like he has to win it himself. Today is another prime example why. Just like two years ago (when the bullpen blew more leads for Kip Wells than for any other pitcher in the league) Kip pitched his heart out only to watch the lead melt away. He gave the league a clinic on how to pitch to Derek Lee. He worked fast, he changed speeds, HE THREW STRIKES. He dominated with his new dropping change up. And what happens? We couldn't get any clutch hits all game to put it away, we couldn't hold the lead, and then in the 9th we choked. Next time out when Kip runs full counts on everybody and throws 120 pitches by the 5th inning, we won't have to wonder why.

The 9th inning. Ohhh the 9th inning. Let's see, I don't mind Mackowiak hitting for Cota with Tike on second and swinging away. He's swinging a hot bat and Tike is a fast runner who will score from second on just about anything. He drew a walk and is just about as fast as Tike. I really can't question that decision. Instead, first let's talk about Freddy Sanchez pinch hitting for Mesa to bunt. If we needed a hit, would we bring Mark Redman to the plate to pinch hit? No, you know why? Because he can't hit. So we needed a bunt and we bring Freddy Sanchez to the plate. This is a problem because, you guessed it, HE CAN'T BUNT. He hadn't layed down a successful sacrifice all year, why exactly did we think he would start now? Greg Brown had just mentioned that Lloyd had said recently David Ross was the best bunter on the team. Well, that's funny. David Ross was on the bench. Since Cota was just pinch hit for, Ross was coming into the game anyways. Wouldn't it make sense to have our best bunter bunting in a key bunting situation? Who cares if he's slow, IT'S A SACRIFICE. But no matter, Dempster walks Lawton. He's obviously having control problems. Now would be a perfect time for Jack to come up, take some pitches, get ahead in the count, and drive his fourth hit of the game into a gap and win the game, right? Wrong. Somehow, Jack Wilson left the dugout without someone telling him, "Jack, take pitches until you get a strike, this guy is really struggling." Maybe Jack should know that on his own, but then again, maybe a guy that is struggling and hitting .185 is going to jump at the first pitch he thinks he can hit to try and be a hero and break his slump, and instead weakly pull a double play ball to the shortstop. Which is precisely why a manager is there, to put the take sign on, to tell him to calm himself down and take a pitch or two. Instead, we get nothing. Jack's 3 hit game is completely negated by the double play, as is any momentum he might have taken from today. Kip's great start is wasted and will probably mess even more with his head. Instead of being .500 after this series, like we should be, we're four games under. We blew another one at home. Don't look now but if we don't catch ourselves against the pitiful Rockies this weekend, the slide will have begun.