Walking Away with a Win
Cubs Pitchers Give 9 Free Passes, But Still Win

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Cubs hurlers couldn't find home plate with a seeing-eye dog yesterday and gave up nine walks, yet the team won 9-4. That's largely because the bats finally came alive as Geovany Soto drove in two with two doubles and a single, while Starlin Castro plated two with a triple to straightaway center. The most impressive feat might have been the escape-artist act that Tom Gorzelanny pulled. The southpaw walked six and gave up five hits in five innings, yet kept the Cubs in the game by allowing a respectable three runs. We'll take it.

ESPN Chicago: Cubs starter Gorzelanny gets first win since mid-May [+ video]
Chicago Tribune: Cubs' bats bail out a subpar Gorzelanny
Chicago Sun-Times: Cubs enjoy a rare good-bat day
MLB: Soto, Fukudome help Cubs wake up bats [+ video]

Go Snubs, Go
Silva Peeved Not to Get All-Star Nod
We'll never understand some things: The infinite space of the cosmos. The popularity of Nickelback. And here's another one: Carlos Silva not making the All-Star team. If the Cubs had even a decent offense, he could be undefeated. Instead, he's merely 8-2 with a 2.96 ERA. Silva himself is bummed, saying, "There's a lot of pitchers that didn't get selected that have better numbers than guys that were selected. I think that's because of their names." Sorry, Carlos. We still think you're groovy.

Chicago Sun-Times: All-Star snub disappoints Silva

Failing Facilities at Fault?
Reds Star Says Wrigley Is to Blame for Cubs' Plight
Fans love Wrigley Field — smart fans, anyway. But apparently it's not great for players, and now we're hearing it could be the reason the Cubs haven't won since forever. "The Cubs are very limited facility-wise and that dramatically limits the work the players can do day to day," Reds' slugger Scott Rolen told the Trib. He also noted the Cubs' varying schedule works against the team, too. We're thinking the Ricketts family will address the Friendly Confines' shortcomings, but as for the schedule, well, sometimes you just have to roll with it.

Chicago Tribune: Reds' Rolen: Cubs have a couple strikes against them

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The Worst of the Worst
How Bad Is This Year's Squad?
Is this is the worst Cubs team of the past 25 years? No way, right? You'd think this team can't be worse than the 2006 Cubs, which lost 96 games. But Bleed Cubbie Blue points out this team is putting up some astonishingly bad numbers; for instance, it's scored fewer than three runs in 43 of its 83 games. And in the recent four games against the Reds, a Cubs team gave up more than eight runs twice in one series for the first time in Wrigley Field history. That's not good.

Bleed Cubbie Blue: What's the worst Cubs team you've seen?

Sign of the Times
Wrigley Field Sign + Photoshop = Funny
We're kind of surprised no one thought of this earlier — or at least did it this well. Someone took some shots of Wrigley Field's sign at Clark and Addison and had some fun with messages. "No hot bats inside/Just hot chicks here," reads one. But our favorite is probably, "Vote for our bat boy/2010 All-Star Game." It's funny 'cause it's true.

YouTube: Wrigley Field sign says it all

The Cubs sent down Jeff Stevens and called up Justin Berg after Sunday's debacle... Carlos Zambrano is set to resume workouts this week... The annual "Road to Wrigley" game is Wednesday night.

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