Hey -- remember that guy, Kevin Correia?  Remember how I said that he'd be the Cubs best hope of victory, because he's a middling starter at best?

Six innings pitched, 5 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, 0 runs.  Ouch.

Meanwhile, Tom Gorzelanny -- one of the more reliable pitchers on the Cubs -- reliably surrendered 9 hits and 3 walks in 6.1 innings of work while allowing 5 earned runs, with most of the damage coming in the 7th.

And that's when things got interesting.

In the bottom of the 7th, trailing 5-0, the Cubs offense, er, "exploded" for 2 runs thanks to a Fukudome double.  Padres 5, Cubs 2.  Could a comeback be of order?

Nope.  The Padres scored two more runs in the top of the 8th, extending their lead to 7-2.  But wait!  The Cubs weren't done!

In the bottom of the 8th, Soriano doubled and DeWitt homered, giving the Cubs another 3 runs and 5 runs on the day.  Could a comeback be of order?

I sound like a broken record, but nope.  The Padres scored 2 more runs in the 9th, as they succeeded in making the Cubs bullpen their bitches in the late innings.  Final score 9-5.  Not so shocking.

If you are reading vitriol in my post, look again -- it's hard to get angry about a 90+ loss team losing to a team that's possibly headed to the post season.  At this point, I feel more resigned to mediocrity than anything else.

But hey, kids!  More baseball tonight!  Woo-hoo!