I went to the ballpark twice this week to watch the Chicago Cubs take on the Houston Astros. On Monday, the Cubs dominated the Astros in an 8-0 victory, displaying a glimpse of the true potential of certain members of the team. Most notably, Carlos Zambrano pitched 8 innings, giving up only 2 walks with 8 strikeouts. He carried a perfect game through 4, and the no-hitter through 7 1/3. Ohman came in and finished with a perfect 9th inning. Zambrano even hit one out, making that the second home run I've seen him hit in Minute Maid Park. Before the game, I managed to get my ticket signed by Matt Murton, #19. Clicking on the photo above will take you to my pictures of the game.

Unfortunately, the Cubs turned around and dropped the next two to the Astros, wasting some great outings by some young pitchers. Carlos Marmol, called up from AA, pitched two solid innings in relief of Kerry Wood on Tuesday, striking out three, walking none, and giving up two hits with no runs; Sean Marshall, also called up this year from AA to slot into the starting rotation (as the Cubs #3!), went seven on Wednesday giving up four hits (one a solo shot by Ausmus; the only run scored all day) with five Ks and three walks; and Rice alumnus David Aardsma pitched 2/3 in relief with zeros across his line.

This has been the story of the 2006 season; taking games from good teams (2 of 3 vs. the Cardinals over the weekend, 6 of 9 so far this season) and blowing games against mediocre teams and rookie pitchers. The Cubs batters have a strong tendency to hack away with no plate discipline, a philosophy that is just as likely due to crappy management (Fire Dusty Baker!) as it is to having players with historically crappy OBP (see: Neifi Perez). I'm still rooting on the Cubs, and I'm still going to go to games, but 2005 Astros aside, I've pretty much written off the season. I just hope that the management sees it too and starts building for the future, rather than trying to put a finger into the hole in the dike when the whole foundation is crumbling.