Cubs-Dodgers: Hot Bats Cooling Off Already? Dodgers Defeat Cubs 2-1

The bats were finally heating up, they had won two games in a row. And, as Bob Brenly said, "they watched the Dodgers do their thing."

The Dodgers "thing" is great ground ball pitching, and small-ball baseball.

The Cubs watched helplessly as former Cub, Juan Pierre, laced a ball up the middle for a single. Then Pierre displayed his incredible speed by taking second (and probably could've taken third) as Soto had trouble transferring the ball from his glove to his hand. Whether Soto gets that ball in his hand or not, Pierre's safe. 

Rafeal Furcal then bunted a single that got into the outfield. It was an incredible bunt, and with it getting into the outfield, it easily scored Pierre. The Dodgers would go on to score one more run over the next six innings. 

Randy Wolf, a pitcher the Cubs were able to beat around in his last start against Chicago, took a shut out into the eighth inning, the only run he gave up was a solo shot to Bobby Scales.

The reference to beating up on Wells happened up in Milwaukee. He was the opposing pitcher against Zambrano on Sept. 14, and didn't pitch past the fourth inning in that game. We know how Zambrano pitched in that one.

It's not like the Cubs didn't have opportunities to score against Wells. They left a total of eight runners in scoring position, including a golden opportunity with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth with only one out.

Despite grabbing the loss, Randy Wells pitched another excellent game. Rumor has it that once Rich Harden is healthy (well, off the disabled list anyways), Wells may take Marshall's spot in the rotation. Marshall would then take over Neal Cotts's role in the bullpen. 

While the Cubs did manage nine hits against the Dodgers, it's troubling that only one run was scored. Somebody needs to step up. Someone needs to come up with a clutch hit with runners in scoring position. And while it would be nice for Fox or Scales to be that guy, it really can't be expected of them.

Soriano, Bradley, Lee. These are the guys that need to step it up, and get the clutch hits that Ramirez would typically get for the Cubs. It's early, but this team has no room for error while sitting in fourth place in the Nation League Central.

A division they were supposed to run away with. What happened to that team? I want to see that team start playing.