Out With a Whimper

The Cubs/White Sox weekend series ended with a 6-0 blowout win for the Sox.  Pretty pathetic effort for a Cubs team that looked like it was starting to show some fire and tenacity at last.

The Cubs once again found themselves being stymied by John Danks, who would be a Cy Young candidate if he could only pitch every start against the North Siders.  The Cubs, meanwhile, got a middling effort from Carlos Zambrano – and that’s frankly being kind.  Z’s been good lately, so it’s not fair to trash him, but one would’ve hoped for a better performance in such a big rivalry game.

The weak offensive effort on Sunday was of course no surprise – the Cubs have made a living not hitting this year – but it was doubly-disappointing given that the wind was blowing out.  Everything seemed set up for a wild slugfest, but the Cubs forgot to bring their bats, managing only four hits.

So the Cubs now limp meekly back to their side of town, having been bested by a White Sox team that isn’t exactly World Series material itself this year.  They’ll play one more game late in the season to make up an earlier rain-out.  It seems doubtful now that this game will have any playoff race meaning for either club, but who knows.