The Chicago Cubs are playing some very bad baseball right now as they lost for the fifth straight time. All five of the losses have came at home as well where they usually play pretty good ball. On Wednesday night, the Houston Astros completed a three game sweep of the Cubs with a 4-0 win. It was the second time in the series that the Cubs were shutout as the offense continues to struggle.

The offense isn’t being as patient as they were earlier in the season and that is one reason why they are struggling at the plate. They are swinging at too many first pitches instead of working the count. Too many balls are being grounded out and turned into double plays which kill any rally they have going on. With the big offensive lineup that the Cubs have, you would think there would be one player that could carry the team but right now everyone is struggling at the plate. Hopefully Thursday’s offday will help out the offense.

Onto the pitching side of the game, they didn’t throw the ball that badly on Wednesday night as Ryan Dempster pitched seven innings. Dempster gave up eight hits and three runs while walking three and striking out seven. The one mistake pitch that Dempster made was in the fifth inning when Ty Wigginton hit a two run home run. The pitchers just aren’t getting the run support like they have most of the season so they are taking the losses rather then getting the wins.

To add even more frustration to the team, Carlos Zambrano didn’t go through and have his MRI done on Wednesday afternoon like he was supposed. ESPN 1000 was reporting that Zambrano had a family matter he had to attend to when the MRI was scheduled. So who knows what is going on with Z’s arm and when he will be able to pitch again.

The Cubs did remain 4.5 games up on the Milwaukee Brewers who were also swept in their three game series. It would have been really nice to have extended the lead of the Brewers with a couple of wins but sometimes that is just how it works out. Atleast the brew crew were swept by the Mets and the Cubs are still up by 4.5 games.

Let’s all enjoy this offday, maybe watch a little football and be right back at it on Friday night when the Cubs begin a weekend series with the Cincinnati Reds. Maybe going out on the road will help the team out.