It has to be the worst series performance by the Cubs in my lifetime.
The Cubs lost all four games in D.C.: 2-1, 11-5, 9-1 and 9-2. The pitching staff was mostly throwing batting practice and the hitters unable to put together quality innings. The whole season can be summed up on the final out of the game, where Jackson hit a ball deep to the wall but jogged around second base not knowing where it was or the call on the play. He did not pick up his coaches, he just stopped after rounding second and was easily tagged out to end the game. Broadcaster Bob Brenly growled that Jackson deserved to be tagged out because he did not run hard around the bases. It was another frustrating lack of basic baseball IQ that has been the calling card for Cub players for years.
The Nationals smacked 15 home runs to the Cubs 3 (2 by Rizzo, 1 by Soriano). The Nationals batted .366 for the series, the Cubs batted only .195. The Cubs were outscored 31-9.
The Cubs have lost 17 of their last 18 road games. The Cubs have only won a meager 17 road games all season. The Cubs record of 51-86 is a pace for a team record for losses in a season. There is no life is this dullard team.
And when there is a spark, it is the bad kind. Bench coach Jamie Quirk got into an obscene laced shouting match with Nationals third base coach Bo Porter in the 5th inning. Apparently, Quirk took issue that the Nationals "were running up the score" by swinging at 3-0 pitches. Come on, this is not little league without a slaughter rule! But no, Quirk went nuts and the benches cleared with no fights. Quirk was ejected from the game. As home plate umpire Jerry Layne said, "All that stuff that happened, it was instigated by Quirk screaming out at Porter. And the obscenities that he screamed out I just felt was inappropriate, and that's what caused everything. The reason he was ejected was he was the cause."
Quirk is part of the Cause, indeed. Why it took 137 games to realize that the Cubs team is horribly bad and the players collectively have stopped competing is hard to fathom. The Nationals are in a pennant race. Their players know that in order to win they have to continue to perform. They are not going to throttle back when a weak team comes into town. If the Cubs coaches were looking for mercy or sympathy from their opponents, this is not the time or sport for that garbage. The Nationals accomplished the goal at the start of every game: to win. So they took the Cubs to wood shed in the process. Epstein and Hoyer always talk about "the process." The process so far has not been good.
The fundamentals are horrible. Pitchers can't throw strikes. Batters can't make contact with the ball.
But the baseball IQ is just as bad. Players don't seem to instinctively know what is going to happen before and during the play. There is no anticipatory action, just eye to hand reaction to events in front of them. The Jackson out to end the game stuck in Brenly's craw because it should have never been an out if the player understood the situation he was in; if he assumed he hit a home run, don't assume it until an umpire signals a home run.
It is hard to feel any sympathy for the Cub players who got chippy all game. When Lenny Castillo, a wasted Rule 5 roster spot, threw deep inside at Bryce Harper's knees, things once again got ugly. Harper started to the mound, but catcher Steve Clevenger stopped him. When the benches emptied, Clevenger was the one looking to punch someone, anyone. Clevenger and Manny Corpas were ejected for fighting, as well as a National reliever, Mike Gonzalez. The real punishment for manager Dale Sveum was that he was NOT ejected from the game; so he had stand in the corner with an imaginary dunce hat on as his club got walloped for the third night in a row.
"It's probably one of the biggest butt-whippings I've ever gotten in my career, as a coach or player," Sveum said. "I don't remember getting man handled that bad in any kind of series I've ever been a part of." So what is Sveum going to do about it? Nothing. And that is the frustrating thing for Cub fans. The team checked out of the season this week in D.C. There really is nothing left for Cub fans to watch expect more bad baseball. The Bears NFL season starts Sunday so that is where the fan base will gravitate towards - - - expected victories in the NFC North.
Every baseball team has it faults. The Cubs currently have all the faults. Competency appears at a low ebb right now. The minor league system is still not training players to be able to perform at the major league level. The major league coaches are still not getting their players to perform consistently at a major league level. The team's baseball IQ has to be at the low end of the league. And the front office is more focused in on pimping out players for paid lunches for additional fan revenue than developing the talent that is part of the alleged process. It is one thing to blame the last regime for the sad state of the organization, but Epstein and Hoyer have to take full blame for the ugly record and further regression of the team of this season.
