Road Trip Analysis: St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia

Record: 2-8
Final Record: 25-39

As the Cubs finished this road trip, they watched their spot in the standings drop to becoming one of the NL's worst teams.  The last loss to Philadelphia Sunday afternoon left them 3-13 in their last 16 games.

Albert Pujols didn't help the Cubs in their quest to return to .500 at all.  Walk-off home runs on back-to-back days at Busch Stadium propelled the Cardinals to a sweep.  The first homer, off Jeff Samardzija, was a well executed changeup below the knees.  The pitch was a ball, but Pujols homered anyway.  A moment like this mandates a sportsmanlike tip of the cap.

But on Sunday, Pujols had a much easier path to victory.  Rodrigo Lopez left him a fastball right down the middle, and Pujols had no issues driving it out of the park to become just the second player since Ron Santo in 1966 to hit walk-off homers in back-to-back games.  The Cubs were just simply beaten at the end of the day, although having been beaten in such a preventable manner was disturbing.  If Pujols can hit Cubs pitching that well, imagine the damage he could do in batting practice if he came to play for the Cubs.  Not that he will or anything, but an interesting thought.

The team showed a variety of ways to lose on this trip while the injury bug continues to infect the entire roster.  The Cubs were without Alfonso Soriano for the entirety of the trip, and weren't too impressed with the continued return of Randy Wells.  Giving up grand slams to scrubs like Miguel Cairo can never be a good thing.  And the only two bright spots on the entire trip were the highlights of the two wins.  Ryan Dempster shut down the Reds in seven innings, Carlos Pena launched a 443 foot blast to right field in Cincinnati, and Tyler Colvin hit what should have been the go-ahead homer in the opener of the Philly series, breaking an unbelievable 0-for-34 slump.

Besides these things, there weren't many positives that came out of this trip for the Cubs.  So I won't bore with complaints about the losing, because it's become more routine.  At least we know what we're getting here.  Nowadays, the phrase goes 'bad teams find a way to lose'.  With this brand of baseball, it appears Cubs fans will just have to Wait Till Next Beer yet again.