Cubs look at first-half positives after loss

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

CHICAGO - The first half of the Cubs' season ended with a whimper. A ninth-inning groundout to second, followed by the din of 41,574 sullen fans trudging out of Wrigley Field. There was no “Go, Cubs, Go,” no hearty celebration. Just silence. The harsh reality of a rare home loss. But rather than reflect on a defeat, the Cubs chose to focus on the positive. “It was a good first half,” Lou Piniella said after his team finished the opening half of the season with a 4-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs never have had the best record in baseball heading into the All-Star Game, which dates to 1933. The Cubs record of 57-38 ties them with the Angels for the best record in the majors. They lead the NL Central at the break for the first time since 2001. “We've overcome a lot here,” Piniella said. “(Alfonso) Soriano's really missed half of the first half - he's been on the disabled list twice.” “(Rich) Hill, a starter that we were counting on, just about missed all of the first half. (Carlos Zambrano) was on the DL. “And yet we've done quite well. The team still functioned and held its own.” Starting pitcher Ryan Dempster was solemn after suffering his first home loss of the campaign, but was still able to put things in to perspective. “It's tough to sit here and feel good about the first half when you just lost a game, but as a team, as a unit, we should be really proud of ourselves about what we did in the first half,” said Dempster, who fell to 10-1 at Wrigley. “It would have been nice to win that game, get a sweep and go into the All-Star break with a win. But we can build off (the first half) and go out there and continue to do exactly the same thing in the second half. Hopefully we play even better.” Mark DeRosa echoed his teammate's comments. “You'd like to sweep to end the first half, but all in all we had a great first half. It's something to build on,” he said. All questioned realize there's no first-half trophy, no bye to the playoffs. If the Cubs, up 41/2 games in the NL Central, want to get back to October, they'll have to play as good - or even better - in the second half. “Every day matters,” Derrek Lee said. “The teams behind us (Milwaukee and St. Louis) aren't going away. We still have a lot of work to do.” Lee said the team is more prepared than they were last year. “We're a much better team, a much deeper team,” he said. “The addition of (Rich) Harden to the rotation makes the rotation much deeper. “I think we have a really good team.” DeRosa agreed. “We've got all the pieces in place to make a run,” he said. Regardless of how the first half ended, it was much better than the previous one. In 2007, the Cubs were 44-43 at the break, 41/2 games out. Now, they're in first place, the same number of games up. “Last year, the first half ... it was a nightmare,” DeRosa said. “I have never been a part of just ... I don't even know the word to describe what we went through. It was just ridiculous, to be honest with you.” This year's first half, all admitted, has gone unbelievably better. “We had a great first half,” Kerry Wood said. “But there's still a long ways to go.”