Cubs 1-4 Braves: Can’t Win If You Don’t Hit

Kevin Hart wasn’t fantastic by any means, but he battled through 5 innings and allowed only a run. He wasn’t hit very hard, but did walk 5 guys. He gave the team more than they could have hoped for and it’s usually good enough to win, but Kenshin Kawakami was much better. The Braves bullpen is ridiculously good. If they get a lead after 7 it’s pretty much game over with Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano at the end of the game. Fukudome hit a solo home run, which accounted for the only run. The Cubs allowed 6 runs in this series and lost 2 of 3. They allowed 2 runs in each of the 3 games yet somehow lost the series. That’s excellent pitching and it should be a sweep, but with this offense it’s losing 2 of 3. It’s really simple for this Cubs team: they either start hitting like they’re capable of or they’re going to finish around .500. There’s not a whole lot of things on this team that needs to be fixed and there’s not really anywhere that can really be fixed. That’s the good news. The bad news is that these guys just aren’t hitting and while we’ve seen some good signs from some of them we continue to see games like this. The Cubs have now allowed 7 runs in this series as Fukudome allowed a single to get past him all the way to warning track and McLouth came around to score. Terrible defense. This team can’t afford to make those mistakes when the offense is as bad as it has been. Let’s start over. 4-1 Cubs lose. ****** offense. ****** defense. The end.