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.”

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Chicago Cubs Manager Lou Piniella will be retiring after this season ends. In making his statement today, Piniella said via press release,

“I couldn’t be more appreciative of the Cubs organization for providing me the opportunity to manage this ball club. I’ve had four wonderful years here that I wouldn’t trade fro anything in the world. I’ve grown to love the city and the fans, but at my age, it will be time to enter a new phase in my life. It will enable me to spend more valuable time with my family – my wife, my kids and my grandchildren. God has blessed me to have been able to work this many years in the game that I love.”

Piniella said that by announcing his intentions now, it would give General Manager Jim Hendry time to find the next Cubs manager, and not have to do so in secret. Piniella also said that while he will retire, his job has not ended and he wants to continue to win as many games as possible.

“I want to keep the momentum going more than anything else and win as many games as we can to get back in this pennant race. I’m going to give every effort I have to help this team win and that will remain my sole focus through the rest of the season,” he said.

Piniella is only one of five managers to win at least three Manager of the Year Awards, including one in 2008 with the Cubs. He will retire with the 14th most wins by a manager in major league history. He is the first Cubs manager in more than 70 years to have a record of .500 or better in each of his first three seasons leading the Cubs.

So now the question really becomes, who will be the next Cubs manager? Will it be Ryne Sandberg? Will it be Joe Girardi? Will it be Joe Torre? All three names have been mentioned in recent weeks as successor to Piniella. It’s up to Jim Hendry to make a decision.

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

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™