No Closer Needed

The Cubs figured out a way to render their closer issues irrelevant:  they fell behind in the 5th and never took the lead again.  No lead, no closer.

Ryan Dempster didn’t have a terrible start, giving up 4 runs in 8 innings while striking out 10, but it wasn’t good enough on a night when the offense was stymied by the Padres bullpen, which surrendered nary a hit in three innings after Cesar Carrillo was lifted.

Not going to come back in too many games when you can’t muster a single knock past the sixth.  Pretty feeble effort for a team that is barely keeping its head above water in both the division and Wild Card races.

The Padres are one of those teams, like the Pirates, that the Cubs have to beat.  Goodness knows they can’t beat any above-.500 teams – like the Dodgers, who they will be playing next.