Saw this tweet from SI’s Jon Heyman and as much as I wanted to I could not disagree:

The Cubs have dumped 8 straight and are having all kinds of trouble scoring runs. Lou Piniella is starting to unravel. He also batted Reed Johnson 5th and Soriano leadoff the other night. Do you see something wrong with that picture? I sure do. I’ve harped on Soriano batting leadoff for a long time. But with Ramirez out and the Cubs offense battling anemia, Soriano needs to be in the middle of the lineup.

On the other side of town they are even worse. They have a run differential of -28 and only the Mariners have scored less runs in the AL. The hope was that the Sox would contend for one last time before Dye, Konerko and Thome leave the team. But so far it doesn’t look good.

There’s all kind of time left. But not even the most ardent Cubs & Sox haters would have guessed they would be a combined 41-46 at this point in the season.