ESPN

As far as scary moments go, Friday’s events for Paul Konerko were right there at the top of his most frightening times in the game.

The White Sox captain was concerned about possible vision loss after getting hit in the head by Jeff Samardzija.

“In the first 20 seconds I had blurred vision and was a little worried,” Konerko said. “Once I realized it was skin that had swelled up over the eye and not the eye itself I was OK in my mind.”

Konerko missed the last two games of the Cubs series over the weekend as he waited for the swelling and bruising to subside around his left eye.

“It was definitely tough not to play those other two games with the wind blowing out 100 mph,” Konerko said. “You don’t want to miss those ones, but that’s the game we play -- sometimes you get hit and have to sit out.”

Konerko totally exonerated Samardzija for the pitch. The Cubs pitcher called Konerko in the Sox clubhouse on Saturday afternoon to see how he was recovering.

(Read full post)

HOUSTON -- The Chicago Cubs put catcher Welington Castillo on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, opening a roster spot for Travis Wood, who will start against the Houston Astros.

Castillo has been dealing with a sprained MCL in his right knee since Friday but hasn’t made enough progress with the injury.

Read the entire story.

HOUSTON -- The Chicago Cubs, who have struggled against left-handed pitching all season, will give their right-handed hitting lineup another try Tuesday in an attempt to end a seven-game losing streak.

David DeJesus is the only left-handed hitter who will get a crack at Houston Astros left-handed starter J.A. Happ, who enters the game with a 4.96 ERA.

The Cubs have scored the least amount of runs against left-handers (21) than any other National League team, but they also have the fewest at-bats against left-handers. Their .225 batting average vs. lefties is 15th in the 16-team NL and their .291 slugging percentage is dead last.

DeJesus has been solid in the leadoff spot this season with a .367 on-base percentage, but he has just a .174 average against lefties this year with a .269 OBP.

DeJesus will lead off and play right field, followed by Reed Johnson (center field) and Starlin Castro (shortstop). Bryan LaHair, who has just one hit in his last 19 at-bats will get the day off and will be replaced in the cleanup spot by Alfonso Soriano (left field).

Joe Mather (third base) will bat fifth, followed by Jeff Baker (first base), Darwin Barney (second base), Blake Lalli (catcher) and Travis Wood (pitcher). For Lalli it will be his first career major-league start.

The hiring of Theo Epstein as club president marked a new era for the Chicago Cubs, but there was no chance that the change would manifest itself in the standings this year, and there is little chance that it will change anything next year.

The Cubs' problems are simply defined. They are probably about five or six young pitchers short of have a legitimate shot of contending. They are four or five players short among their position players, and those they do have -- Starlin Castro, Triple-A first baseman Anthony Rizzo -- need more development time.

Read the entire story

STREAKING

1. Alfonso Soriano, LF: Yes, we did find a Cub who had a decent week. Soriano finally found his home run mojo, hitting three during the week after enduring a six-week drought to begin the season. For all the talk about trading or releasing the 36-year-old veteran, his retiring teammate Kerry Wood singled him out as a player he admired for fighting through injury and attrition in order to play every day. Besides going deep three times last week, Soriano hit .360 with 6 RBIs. Soriano has a nagging knee problem that may result in a trip to the disabled list at some point this season.

2. Anthony Rizzo, Iowa Cubs 1B: The only other Cub who had a good week plays in the minor leagues. Rizzo got all the headlines this past weekend as manager Dale Sveum said the team will consider calling him up when the Cubs begin interleague play in American League ballparks on June 8. Rizzo has dominated the Pacific Coast League with 15 home runs, 14 doubles and a .365 batting average. Bryan LaHair will have to move to the outfield when Rizzo is called up.

SLUMPING

1. The other 24 players: A total offensive melt down has contributed to the Cubs’ seven-game losing streak. They have only scored In four of their past 36 innings over four games. That statistic includes two meaningless games in which the Cubs scored four runs in the ninth inning of blowout losses. Sveum has promised a shakeup of the lineup that may find Starlin Castro back as the leadoff hitter. The strength of the team has been the starting pitching which is beginning to break down due to lack of run support.

ESPNChicago.com's Bruce Levine takes your Cubs and White Sox questions during a live chat at noon Tuesday. Click here to submit your questions.

HOUSTON -- With two hits Monday, Starlin Castro reached the 400-hit mark in his first 325 games and put himself among some elite company.

Among all major-league players who started their career after 1980, Castro became the sixth fastest to reach the 400 hits, tying him with Alex Rodriguez. The only players to reach the plateau faster were Ichiro Suzuki (268 games), Nomar Garciaparra (302), Kirby Puckett (310), Hanley Ramirez (317) and Wade Boggs (324).

He also extended his personal hit streak at Houston’s Minute Maid Park to 11 games, which is the sixth longest active streak from a visiting player. The Reds’ Joey Votto has the longest run in Houston at 18 games.

HOUSTON -- In a perfect position to stop the Chicago Cubs' slide, Matt Garza only managed to pour gasoline on this brush fire.

The closest thing the Cubs have to an ace gave up a pair of three-run home runs and seven total runs over three innings as his night ended early.

It was easily his shortest outing of the season and this start, as well as a six-run outing April 18 at Miami, were the only times he has given up more than two runs in an outing this season.

“That was not Matt Garza pitching, it was strange,” manager Dale Sveum said. “So many off-speed pitches and breaking balls, it’s not the Matt Garza that I have seen for the first six weeks. I think he got out of whack somehow.”

Sveum made an early visit to the mound to encourage more fastballs and getting ahead in the count, but that only ended in a Chris Johnson home run.

“It was a bad meeting,” Sveum said.

Johnson’s home run came on a fastball, up and out over the middle of the plate.

(Read full post)

HOUSTON -- They were going to have to send Bryan LaHair's superhero costume to the cleaners at some point.

For much of the Cubs’ current seven-game losing streak the previously red-hot slugger has been in a funk right along with the rest of his teammates. Clark Kent vs. the breaking ball isn’t what anybody wants to see.

Since his home run last Tuesday at St. Louis, LaHair has gone 1-for-19 and his streak of reaching base in 32 consecutive games that ended last week is a fond memory. It is the first time he has gone this long without a home run since a seven-game run April 14-23, but he at least had six hits over that stretch.

(Read full post)

HOUSTON -- The Chicago Cubs dropped to a season-worst 12 games under .500 on Monday after a 8-4 defeat to the Houston Astros in the opener of a three-game series.

How it happened: Matt Garza gave up a pair of three-run home runs, while the Cubs' pitching staff gave up three total home runs in a game for the third consecutive day. Garza lasted just three innings, giving up seven runs on five hits with two walks. Manager Dale Sveum went with six left-handed bats against the Astros’ Bud Norris but it yielded just five hits and no runs off the starter. Randy Wells came on in relief of Garza and gave up one run over five innings. With the game already out of hand, the Cubs scored four in the ninth.

What it means: The Cubs’ seven-game losing streak is now their longest of the season (they also had a six-game losing streak April 14-20). It is the longest losing streak for the Cubs since they lost eight consecutive from May 30-June 7 last season. They have averaged a shade over three runs per game during the slide.

Outside the box score: After not being shut out the entire season, the Cubs were nearly held scoreless in consecutive games until scoring in the ninth inning Monday. Going back to Friday’s game against the White Sox, the Cubs have scored in just two of the past 29 innings (four runs in the ninth inning Saturday and four in the ninth Monday). Before Monday, the offensively challenged Cubs had scored a run every 8.68 at-bats against right-handed pitching. It was even worse against left-handers with a run every 12.8 at-bats. The bad news: They face left-handed starters in the next two games at Houston.

Off beat: It’s a tough time to not be playing at their best as the Cubs just started a run where they will play 16 of 19 games on the road until June 10 and will log 6,770 air miles over the three-week stretch. Until a June 12 home series begins against the Detroit Tigers, the Cubs will play one series in six different cities: Houston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Minnesota. The only home series in the stretch is May 28-30 against the San Diego Padres.

Up next: The Cubs will send left-hander Travis Wood (0-0, 4.50 ERA) to the mound on Tuesday night. He will be opposed by Astros left-hander J.A. Happ (3-3, 4.96) in the 7:05 p.m. start from Minute Maid Park.

HOUSTON -- This time, Travis Wood will be able to unpack his suitcase.

Wood, who is already with the team in Houston, will be placed on the roster Tuesday and pitch against the Houston Astros. A corresponding move will be announced, which could be Welington Castillo (MCL sprain) going to the disabled list or pitcher Blake Parker going back to Triple-A Iowa.

It is already Wood’s second stint with the big league club this season after he was recalled before a May 6 game against the Los Angeles Dodgers and then sent down immediately afterward. He gave up three runs over six solid innings that day and the Cubs went on to a 4-3 victory.

That was just a one-and-done start, though, since Matt Garza was sick. This time he takes over the rotation spot left open when Chris Volstad was optioned to Iowa following his 0-6 start in eight outings, all Cubs defeats.

“Hopefully I can stick around for a while this time and if not, hopefully I can do what I can,” Wood said.

His plane ticket to rejoin the Cubs is open-ended, so if he doesn’t stick around he only has himself to blame.

(Read full post)

HOUSTON -- That lineup upheaval Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum talked about for the top of the order will have to wait.

Sveum said he came close to making the change, but declined at the last minute.

In Monday’s opener of a three-game series at Houston against the Astros, the lineup looked very similar to the one that has been used against right-handed pitching for about a month now, aside from a few spots at the bottom of the order.

(Read full post)

A panel of ESPNChicago.com experts ranked the Top 50 Cubs of all time.

Here is a gallery of our Top 50.

Who did we miss?

Did Kerry Wood belong? Randy Hundley?

Should Shawon Dunston have been left off?

For a team with so few championships, there is no shortage of Hall of Famers who have donned the Cubs jersey.

ESPNChicago's Doug Padilla and Bruce Levine break down the White Sox's sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley and discuss how much longer Alfonso Soriano will stay in the lineup.

CHICAGO -- It was another typical 2012 Wrigley Field crowd Sunday and a typical Chicago Cubs effort -- decent but with conspicuous bare patches.

While the Chicago White Sox headed south with some momentum following their three-game sweep in the first of two crosstown series, the Cubs had simply notched their sixth straight loss, their fans left with the same gnawing emptiness they are expected to tolerate for the unforeseeable future.

There are no real surprises here that in late-ish May, the Cubs are scraping the bottom of the National League Central with one of the worst records in baseball. We knew it was going to be this way, didn't we? But after being handled as easily as the White Sox made it look this weekend, you get the feeling that Cubs fans, still showing up in respectable if not sellout numbers, did not necessarily think it would feel quite this bad quite this soon.

Read the entire column.