Chicago Cubs swept over the weekend by powerful Cardinals

The Chicago Cubs, who were once nine games above .500, were swept by the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend, pushing them to 11.5 games out of first-place with only two days left in June. And once again, starting pitcher Tsuyoshi Wada will find himself being placed on the disabled list as reliever Neil Ramirez is expected to be activated.

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There’s no telling if Donn Roach will remain with the big league club, but with the trade deadline slowly approaching, the Cubs should be making a serious push to acquire another arm to help anchor the bottom half of the rotation.

If skipper Joe Maddon decides to move on from Roach after his brief outing against the Cardinals this past Saturday, he could turn to veteran southpaw, Travis Wood who has been working out of the bullpen since he was demoted. While the team is expected to make a run for Cole Hamels, Oakland Athletics own Scott Kazmir could eventually pop up on Theo Epstein’s radar.

This team is going to need to figure something out or else they’re going to stumble during the final half of the season. With a fresh month, comes a fresh start for Jon Lester – who is expected to start game two-of-three against Bartolo Colon as the North Siders visit the New York Mets beginning Tuesday.

Kyle Hendricks will be on the mound for the boys in blue and is in danger of being demoted himself after struggling in his previous two starts, allowing a combined 10 earned runs on 15 hits and two home runs – both of which came against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his most recent outing at Wrigley Field.

The last time these two teams met, The Cubs completed the four-game sweep and stretched their winning streak to six games before dropping the series finale with the Pittsburgh Pirates in town.

Rookie third baseman, Kris Bryant, ‘christened’ the left field bleachers with a tower blast as he and Anthony Rizzo would go back-to-back. Bryant followed that up the next day with yet another back-to-back performance, this time with outfielder Chris Coghlan as Jake Arrieta topped Mets’ rookie Noah Syndergaard in his big league debut.

Coghlan handed Chicago the third game of the series with a walk-off win while Dexter Fowler led the charge during the series finale. New York has proven to be more dangerous at home rather than away as they currently hold a 29-11 record at Citi Field.

Here’s more from around the league:

‘Houston Astros earn series split in 3-1 win over the Yankees‘ – Climbing Tal’s Hill

‘Madison Bumgarner records 1000th strikeout vs Rockies‘ – Around The Foghorn

‘Are the Angels pretenders or contenders?‘ – Halo Hangout

‘KC Royals sweep Athletics in Oakland 5-3‘ – Kings of Kaufman

‘Baltimore Orioles back in first; Chris Davis, Parmelee homer‘ – Birds Watcher