The weather said it all Sunday. There may be a few warm days left, but at Wrigley Field the seasons unofficially changed during a midgame rain delay.
Spectators wearing tank tops and sandals left after the cold front moved through. Those who stayed in the park bundled up in their ponchos and fleece jackets.
It could take similar non-fair-weather fortitude to keep watching as the Cubs try to wring a postseason berth out of the remaining 20 games.
Five straight L blue flags for the Cubs: a blast of cold air at the worst possible time, just after the team had won seven of 10 and had most of its parts back in working condition.
“It’s amazing how one game in Florida turned it around,” first baseman Matt Stairs said after a 9-5 loss to the Braves that sealed the first home sweep of the Cubs since Milwaukee did it in late June. “But the way I see it, this series is over. We can’t sit back and mope. The best thing is we just lost five and we’re still a game, game and a half out of the wild card.
“Atlanta has the best road record in the league. We got outpitched, outhit, out-defensed. (Braves shortstop Rey) Sanchez made three or four unbelievable plays. They buried us.”
You could pick out patches of blue sky. Home runs by Stairs and Todd Hundley that ended hitless streaks of four and two games, respectively.
Courtney Duncan, the soft-spoken reliever who acts as barber for half his teammates, sweeping up the clippings by striking out five and giving the Cubs two mercifully quick innings.
And the sweet seventh-inning sight of Skip and Chip Caray conducting family business together for the first time, the son’s arm wrapped protectively around the father as they sang into separate microphones.
But mostly, Sunday was Cubs’ arms looking soggy and Braves spraying balls into the outfield. It was Cubs seeing-eye hits wearing shades.
Atlanta first baseman Julio Franco, apparently motivated by his time in the Mexican League, twice took meat off Bill Mueller’s plate with eye-rubbing putouts, smothering a liner and knocking down another. The Braves’ infield turned a double play in the seventh off pinch-hitter Roosevelt Brown that had the crisp and nifty feel of a team on the upswing.
Sunday was also third place for the first time since May.
“We really just have to worry about ourselves,” starter Jason Bere said of the slide in the standings.
There’s plenty of material.
“The last two days, we could not stop them after two were out,” Cubs manager Don Baylor said. “That’s been our downfall. … (Cubs center fielder Michael) Tucker has a ball hit off his glove (in the first inning) and the next thing you know they have four runs.
“Desperate?” he asked in response to the inevitable question. “Depends on how you define that. … We’re desperately in need of getting that third out. This is not the way to start a homestand. We need someone to come in and stop the bleeding.”
The ambulance will be driven Monday by Jon Lieber, who will start after an extra day’s rest mandated by two difficult outings.
“You can’t think about it,” Lieber said of his task.
As he spoke, clubhouse attendants thumped the players’ shoes against a trash can and dug out mud caked between the cleats.
This lost series might be harder to floss out.
