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player ready...The Cubs’ brain trust is as baffled as everyone else by the continuing miserable home record.
“We’ve tried to think of everything that might help,” said General Manager Ed Lynch. “We wondered if we need to stop taking batting practice at home–if we’re hitting too much, if we’re taking too much infield, if we need more power in the lineup. We’ve looked at fly balls compared to ground balls. Nothing makes sense.
“One thing’s for sure: The time to just ignore it is probably over. We need to do something about it. We just don’t know what we need to do.”
The Cubs have the worst home record in the majors over the last two seasons–45-73 after Monday’s 12-1 win over the Dodgers. That alone was enough to knock them out of playoff contention this season.
Redoubling: Mark Grace snapped a three-week drought with three doubles against the Dodgers Monday night. Grace leads the league with a career-high 46 doubles, but hadn’t had one since Aug. 22. The last National League player to hit 50 doubles in a season was Pete Rose with Cincinnati in 1978.
Lost chances: Sammy Sosa followed Grace’s double with a single to drive in his 107th run of the year, the most RBIs by a Cub since Andre Dawson had 137 in 1987. Dawson got his in a full 162-game season, but even with a strike-shortened 144-game schedule Sosa might be closing in on that total if he had a little help. Sosa drove in 34 runs in 23 games from Aug. 17 through Monday.
The Zeile thing: Third baseman Todd Zeile was out of the lineup Monday night and probably will stay out until Friday. He is bothered by a bruised right thumb.