After losing seven consecutive games, the last two to the Milwaukee Brewers, a different Cubs team took the field yesterday. Who were these guys? Who cares? They won 15-3.

How do you start to explain this team? You can’t. There is no rhyme or reason to how these guys are playing right now, and there are so many things going on with the team, it makes it harder still to comprehend how a team can be so bad for a few games and suddenly break free like they did yesterday.

The team is now without Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot, who were traded to Los Angeles last week for Blake DeWitt and two minor leaguers, who was inserted into the lineup upon his arrival to the Cubs. Manager Lou Piniella returned to the dugout on Tuesday after taking three days to attend a family funeral in Florida. Derrek Lee rejected a trade to the Angels before the trade deadline, reportedly angering some in management.

Carlos Silva experienced a rapid heartbeat in Denver, was taken out of the game in the first inning, spent a night in a Denver hospital being monitored and is currently on the disabled list awaiting word from his doctors about when he can play again.

Carlos Zambrano returned to the team and supposedly made his apologies to his teammates. He was used as a pinch hitter in Denver over the weekend and in relief yesterday, but will return to the starting rotation on Monday in San Francisco. And Aramis Ramirez has been in and out of the lineup with a sore thumb. The team is also playing with many rookies especially in the bullpen. That’s a lot for a team that has struggled to have to deal with.

Statisticians will tell you what the team should look like on paper, but these changes and distractions have been showing in poorly executed play on the field. Perhaps now that Lou and a hopefully calmer Z are back the team can turn its full attention to the game and winning.

Everyone knows this team is going nowhere this year, and evidence of fan apathy is really settling in. Promotions for available bleacher seats are ongoing, but Tuesday night, those sitting in the bleachers had room to stretch out. Empty seats in the stands are starting to become the norm. The Cubs aren’t likely to go on a huge winning streak and suddenly find themselves in contention for a playoff spot, but they need to start winning in order to keep from ending up in the cellar.

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.”

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

On this anniversary of the 20,000th game in Cubs franchise history, the team is left with a 24-man roster after Carlos Zambrano was suspended indefinitely yesterday after his outburst in the dugout at U.S. Cellular Field and a second confrontation directed towards camera crews outside the park as he was leaving the game.

There are some today who are defending Zambrano’s outbursts saying this is how you get the team fired up. However, you do not fire up a team by starting fights with your own teammates, especially the team’s leader Derrek Lee.

How many times have we seen Z lose his cool, apologize and then lose his cool again? How long should this go on before he decides to enroll in anger management sessions?

Following is a short timeline of Zambrano meltdowns, some of which were reported in today’s Chicago Tribune. It is by no means a complete list, but representative of the problem with the man and why at this point he is unfit to pitch for the Cubs.

June 4, 20021 – Z is suspended for five games and fined an undisclosed amount of money for his actions in a bench clearing brawl in a Triple-A game in Utah.

July 19, 2004 – Z hits Jim Edmonds twice during a game against the Cardinals, starts yelling at Edmonds and then at the umpire and receives a five-game suspension. After the game, Z says he was just doing his job and didn’t mean to hit Edmonds that he got caught up in the heat of the moment and should not have reacted the way he did. He received a five-game suspension.

June 1, 2007 – Z and catcher Michael Barrett have an all-out fight in the Cubs clubhouse after an altercation in the dugout, apparently initiated by Z. Barrett not only ended up in the hospital with a bloody lip, but was traded two weeks later.

September 3, 2007 – Fans boo Z for not being a team player and having a lousy outing. In the fifth inning, as he walks back to the dugout, he starts taking off his jersey and points to his head.

May 27, 2009 – Z’s temper gets the best of him as he disagrees with a call at the plate, bumps the umpire, gets ejected from the game, hurls a baseball that was destine for the bleachers and attacks the Gatorade container in the dugout. Z gets six-game suspension.

June 25, 2010 – Z verbally attacks both Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez in the dugout. He is told to go home, and on the way out of the Cell, verbally attacks some cameramen from local Chicago stations.

See a pattern here?

Many times we have heard Z apologize for his actions and promise to keep his calm. At one point he even said he had to face his daughters and promise them he would keep his cool.

Last night, Z had dinner with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Whether the two talked about this latest suspension or not is unknown, but it really doesn’t matter. Z has sealed his own fate. It may be wise for him to find some anger management classes before he starts to play with any other team.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

In addition to contributing to Sports Climax, Miriam Romain maintains a Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com. and is Assistant Editor of SB Nation Chicago. The Chicago native has also been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Say what you want about the Chicago Cubs and the moves Manager Lou Piniella made before this weekend’s sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee, but look at the results.

The Cubs went into Milwaukee and beat the Brewers 8-1 Friday night, 5-1 Saturday and finished the series off with a 12-2 win on Sunday with Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly and Randy Wells each picking up a win.

In the series, Lilly made his season debut with the Cubs in front of a raucous crowd of 43,410. While at times in the beginning he looked a bit wild, he pitched well. His first pitch was clocked at 76 mph. In all, Lilly threw 78 pitches over six shut-out innings before being pulled for Carlos Zambrano who made his first relief appearance for the Cubs.

Z was greeted by a standing ovation at Miller Park and after taking the mound, he only needed two pitches to get out of the inning. Later, Zambrano, known to be one of MLB’s best hitting pitchers, came to bat with the bases loaded, and hit a sacrifice fly to score another run. Later, Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol closed out the game.

If that wasn’t enough, the Cubs continued their assault on the Brewers today. While most Cubs fans were enjoying the home runs by Tyler Colvin, Kosuke Fukudome, Geovany Soto and Derrek Lee, another little scenario was playing out that happens quite rarely in baseball.

Both Colvin and Fukudome were one triple away from hitting for the cycle. Neither one completed the cycle, but it seemed Colvin was close when he hit a liner to Prince Fielder in the 8th that would have gone to the corner for a possible triple had Fielder not made a nice leap for the ball.

This comes on the heels of another curious cycle that didn’t happen for two players in last night’s Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins game when a player from each time made a bid to hit for the cycle. Both Joe Mauer of the Twins and David DeJesus of the Royals were one home run away from accomplishing the feat. The game went to 12 innings with the Twins finally beating the Royals 9-7.

The last time there were two cycles hit in one day was on September 1, 2008, by Stephen Drew, with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Adrian Beltre, while he was with the Seattle Mariners.

Just days ago, the Brew Crew demolished the Pittsburgh Pirates in record-setting fashion, outscoring them 36-1 in a 3-game series. The Cubs repaid the favor for the Pirates by doing near the same to the Brewers, outscoring them 25-4 on their home turf in this series.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

In addition to writing her Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com, Miriam Romain has been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is a contributor to SportsClimax.com . She is also writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™ 

The Houston Astros were forced to travel to Milwaukee to play a “home” series against the Chicago Cubs after Hurricane Ike slammed the Texas coast and damaged their stadium. In Milwaukee, they ran into another force named Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly.

Zambrano (14-5) was on the mound for the first time since September 2 and hurled a no-hitter against the jet-lagged Astros while striking out 10 and walking only one in a 5-0 victory on Sunday.

Zambrano, one of the best hitting pitchers in MLB who is batting .354 with 9 extra-base hits and 14 RBI, outhit the entire Astros line-up after going 1 for 3 and crossing the plate once in that game.

Things didn’t get much better for the Astros on Monday when they ran into a similar scenario with Cubs left-hander Ted Lilly on the bump. Lilly (15-9) mowed through the hapless Astros line-up taking a no-hit bid into the 7th inning. Fifteen innings into the series and the Astros had been held hitless. Lilly gave up a hit to the lead-off hitter in the 7th and was later pulled but not before racking up 9K’s and walking only one in the 6-1 win.

Overall the Astros were 1 for 48 for a .020 batting average and .062 OBP against the duo from the Windy City. The Astros hitters looked horribly out of synch both days and Lilly and Zambrano took advantage of it.

Zambrano’s no-hitter was the first by a Cub since 1972.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax