FINALLY! Volcano Lou Erupts!

I'm usually a big advocate of the Number 13. It happens to be my favorite number. I think part of the fact that everyone else thinks of it as unlucky attracted me to it. It was like, if it was my favorite number, then it wouldn't be unlucky for me, and that would make me different from everyone else. Yeah, maybe that was it.

Turns out that was a load of BS. Today was Friday the 13th, what should be one of my favorite days of the year, and it was on this day that the Cubs had the greatest collapse of the season thus far. So why, you may be wondering, does the title of this post have excited exclamation points in it?

Because Friday the 13th is the day that Papa Lou finally blew his top.

The Priors and Woods of the world are trembling in fear.

You may remember what Dusty Baker would say after Zambrano and Ohman made blowing a 5 run lead look easy. He would be apologetic and protective of the pitchers, saying these things happen sometime, and he'll get his stuff together. Not Lou Piniella, my friend. He's starting to sound like first base throwing, umpire face spitting, getting ejected from the game, 1990 World Series winning Lou.

"What the [heck] do you think isn't working? You see the [darn] game," he said.

"This guy's your ace," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Zambrano. "You've got a 5-0 lead with the eighth and ninth hitters coming up. You feel pretty good about that inning. All of a sudden, it turns into a six-run inning. What do I do? I pitch [Zambrano] when it's his turn again. What else can I do?

"Then I bring in a reliever who's throwing 30-40-foot curveballs to boot," Piniella said of Ohman. "I can start to see some of the ways this team lost ballgames. I can see it. We've got to correct it, obviously."

"Look, when you've got a five-run lead, whether a guy misses a ball, makes an error, or what, you should be able to pitch through it," Piniella said.

Zambrano, however, seems to be channeling his inner Dusty Baker.

"When I came in [to the clubhouse] in the fifth inning, I told someone, 'Man, that happened so quick,'" Zambrano said. "I won't be frustrated. I feel good, I feel I'm throwing the ball the way I want to. I have to mix the pitches more and be more aggressive. That's it."

We'll see what Captain Lou has to say about that, Big Z.

Game Summary for April 13th, 2007

• Score: Cubs lose to the Reds, again, 6-5.
  
• Player of the Game: Michael Wuertz. Came in during the 5th inning to strike out three straight batters and clean up Zambrano's mess. We should call him The Janitor.
  
• Subject of Lou's Wrath: Carlos Zambrano / Will Ohman. Zambrano loaded the bases with no outs and gave up 4 runs, Ohman then walked two batters to seal the loss. Lou finally made it obvious that he's sick and tired of managing a crappy team.
  
• Comments: We had this game made until the 5th inning. I actually quit listening after the Reds scored their first run, thinking even Zambrano can't blow this thing. Wasn't too surprised when he did though. On the bright side, the Cubs were decent on offense for a change. Zambrano began his push for the Silver Slugger award early this year with a solo home run. He now has as many homers as Soriano, Lee, and Aramis combined. Sometimes I wish the NL used a DH.
  
• Magic Number: Still 156. Reds are first in the division, this number is going nowhere if we keep losing to them.

Tomorrow's game features the only Cubs pitcher that hasn't had a bad game, Rich Hill, against the only Reds pitcher we've beaten all season, Bronson Arroyo. If we can't win this one, I'm fully expecting Lou to start sacrificing young players, Old Testament style. I nominate Angel Guzman and Ronny Cedeno for the first round.