The Cubs beat the Reds Monday night 4-2 in Cincinnati.  Randy Wells pitched 7.1 terrific innings, giving up six hits and one earned run (a homerun to Alex Gonzalez in the 8th inning).  He struck out 5 and walked two.  With the victory, Wells is now 8-4 with a 2.73 ERA.

Mike Fontenot was the hitting star (Yeah, you read that right).  He was 2-for-4 with a homerun, three RBI and one run scored.  John Grabow saw his first action as a Cub.  He faced two batters and did not allow a base runner.

But like most die hard Cubs fans, I can’t just be happy with a win.  I’m glad the Cubs won, but Carlos Marmol did everything he could in the ninth inning to give the game away.  The stats tell part of the story.  He pitched 1.0 inning, gave up two hits, a base-on-balls, and allowed one run.  But it was more than that.  He pitched like he was scared of each batter he faced and he refused to throw strikes.  There’s such a thing as being efferctively wild.  Marmol was just wild.

Marmol was blowing his fastball by hitters, but after a while, he refused to throw it.  He kept throwing his slider, but couldn’t locate it.  Koyie Hill was calling for pitches up in the zone, but Marmol kept throwing them low.  He’d miss his target by a foot a more.  One one occasion, Hill practically stood up behind the plate to get Marmol to throw higher.  It didn’t help.

Despite his past heroics, I don’t have faith in Marmol any more.  With him as the set up man and Kevin Gregg as the closer, it’s like throwing gasoline on a fire every night.  I’m not sure what the Cubs can do about it at this point in the season, but I hope that Jim Hendry addresses the issue in the off season (or better yet, with a waiver claim in August).  If BJ Ryan can get back anything close to what he used to have, I wouldn’t mind seeing Lou Piniella give him a chance at the back of the bullpen. 

The Cubs and Reds clash again tonight.  New Cub Tom Gorzelanny (3-1) will face Johnny Cueto (8-8) at  Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.