MLB

Add Paul Maholm, Charlie Morton and Brian Burres to the list of opposing starting pitchers that Cubs hitters can't solve.

I don’t even think those guys have baseball cards.

The North Siders (13-16) dropped all three games to the Pittsburgh Pirates and now find themselves in fourth place in the National League Central.

Next up for the Cubs is a three-game set in Cincinnati, and they face the same starters they faced in the second series of the season—when they dropped two of three.

The big behemoth from Georgia lumbered to the mound to begin the top of the ninth inning with a 3-1 lead Thursday evening, in Chavez Ravine.

Jonathan Broxton closes games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, or he’s supposed to anyway.

Triple-digit fastballs, and 90 mph sliders don’t generally greet hitters with a smile.

The Yankees have won four straight, but their arch rivals, the Red Sox, have also won four in a row to climb back over .500 for the first time since beating New York on Opening Night to go 1-0.

That was the only game Boston won in the three-game series, and the Sox went on a huge slide from there, hitting rock bottom on May 2, when they fell to 11-14 after being swept by the last-place Orioles.

But Terry Francona's bunch bounced back by scoring 36 runs in a four-game sweep of the Angels.

We are moving closer and closer to the full-fledged prospect season, though that hasn’t stopped teams from already making some moves. The Cubs have recalled Starlin Castro, as we mentioned earlier, and there certainly could be more moves on the horizon.  

The San Francisco Giants' two biggest surprises of 2010 so far have been Barry Zito's resurgence, and Nate Schierholtz emergence.

While Zito is finally enjoying some good press in his fourth year in San Francisco, Schierholtz is hitting .381 from the eighth slot in the lineup.

With respect to Giants' Manager, Bruce Bochy's reluctance to "mess with success," by shaking up his lineup, the numbers say he'd be foolish not to.

The San Francisco Giants are off to a great start in 2010. They have the best record in the National League, and are led by perhaps the best starting rotation in all of baseball.

While the team has a stranglehold on great pitching, their offense is below the league average in most categories. They have grounded into more double plays than any NL team, and have the fewest number of walks of any team in the league other than the Houston Astros.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are approaching a pivotal stretch in the 2010 season. The next 11 out of 17 games the team will play will be against division opponents.

According to the dictionary, the term curse means, "the expression of a wish that misfortune, evil, doom, etc., or a formula or charm intended to cause such misfortune to another."

I bring that up because in the sports world, another curse has been brought up and being talked about.

No, the Pittsburgh Pirates aren't going to be a factor in the division race for some time to come. But they have already made a difference in the National League Central race.

The Pirates haven't been any great shakes against the Houston Astros, losing three games to them in Minute Maid Park, and they're 2-4 against the Milwaukee Brewers.

It's hard being the younger, less tradition-rich franchise in the city that never sleeps.