What can you say about the Chicago Cubs that hasn’t been said already? They just keep finding ways to lose. And you can’t blame last night’s 18-1 loss on Lou Piniella, he was still in Florida for his uncle’s funeral.

Cubs pitchers Randy Wells, Justin Berg, Casey Coleman and Brian Schlitter combined their efforts for the loss.

Although the outcome of the game was not what Cubs fans had hoped for, any of the more than 37,000 who stuck around for the entire game might have taken notice of some rather rare Cubs history being made.

First, a franchise record was tied last night when the Cubs allowed the Brewers 26 hits. According to bleedcubbieblue, the last time the Cubs gave up 26 hits, it was to the Milwaukee Braves.

Also of note, according to bleedcubbieblue, was that last night was only the eighth time since 1900 that the Cubs had lost a game by 17 or more runs, with the last one occurring against the Atlanta Braves in 1996.

Scoreboard watchers looked on after the top of the ninth inning ended to find that there was no yellow colored 26 for the hits by a visiting team. Hopefully this was a one-time occurrence and yellow numbers above 25 will not be needed again.

Fans also saw the debut of third-generation pitcher Casey Coleman. His father pitched briefly for the Cubs in 1976.

For all the people still speculating on who the next Cubs manager will be, perhaps we can take Alan Trammell’s name off the table. From the looks of things last night, he seemed to be channeling Lou Piniella, making bad decisions throughout the game, including letting Schlitter warm up way too long before being brought into the game.

Tonight the Cubs will send rookie Thomas Diamond to the mound to face the Brewers. Diamond was called up when Carlos Silva was put on the disabled list to further monitor the rapid heartbeat he suffered in Denver over the weekend. Hopefully the Brewers won’t take advantage of him like they did our entire team last night.

Used with permission of the author.

Miriam Romain is a Chicago-based sportswriter and national columnist covering the Chicago Cubs for Examiner.com. The Windy City native is also the Associate Editor for SBNation Chicago and has been published in the Maple Street Press Cubs annuals. In her free time, Romain is working on a book titled “Summers At Wrigley With My Dad.”

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