Stop playing around...

In all honesty there's no such thing as a must win at this time of the year, cause as long as we stay within a game or two up to the last week we're still in it. That being said, I really am in no mood to go through the agony of the last year and have this boil down to the last week of the season when in all honesty we should wrap this up before THIS month is over. Our schedule is easy until we play the Braves the last weekend of the season and they will have wrapped up their division by then. The ups and downs and mediocre play are all well and good, but it's time to make our push and get rolling into the playoffs so we have that certain, "No One Can Beat Us" attitude and everyone will be scared to meet us in the playoffs like they should be.
Rob Neyer I recall had an article last season showing Dusty's teams records in the last month and for the most part they were quite good, no reason to stop that now.

I didn't have time to look up the Cubs stats at Miller Park, but after an impressive 1st half the Brewers have come back down to earth and still have one of the best (if not best) pitchers in the league this year (who seems to destroy the Cubbies). Team comparisions:

_________________Cubs______Brewers
Runs Scored_____546(7th)___462(15th)
AVG_____________.266(7th)__.252(14th)
OBP_____________.323(14th)_.325(12th)
SLG_____________.456(3rd)___.388(15th)

ERA_____________3.76(2nd)___4.11(11th)

Zambrano attempts to continue his dominant ways against the Brewers and faces V. Santos who has done reasonably well this season, although has struggled mightily lately. Then M. Clement gets screwed once again and faces off against Cub Killer & 2000 Olympic Hero Ben Sheets. Maddux faces the surprising(a term I assume has been used a lot this year around the Brewers) rookie Chris Capuano in the 3rd game. I expect a bunch of low scoring games and/or Sosa to break out of his slump. The season series stands at 5-3 in favor of the Brewers, but they have struggled in losing 9 of their last 12, of course so have the Cubs.

Dusty needs to do what he does best and that is get his team to forget the debacle that was that last homestand and start tearing up the NL. I haven't heard about A. Ramirez yet but Hawkins is due back from his suspension which I only HOPE means less time for Farnsworth. As for Dusty's lineup experiments, why not try this one:

Walker
Garciaparra
Ramirez
Lee
Sosa
Alou
Patterson
Barrett
Pitcher

I know Patterson has done well lately in the leadoff spot but he doesn't belong there. Baker has said he wants to keep Ramirez at the 5 spot so he's not running around the bases too much with his groin injury and he's not ready to lower Sosa. Fine!!! When the playoffs come though, try this instead, it will work better and we may have a few less solo HR's.

As usual, Go Cubs!!!!