Playing the Cubs is pretty much the ultimate no-win scenario, especially in Wrigley. I mean, worst case scenario, we lose the game. Best case scenario, we still have to spend time thinking about the Cubs. Ugh.


Recaps:

• [AZ Central] Arizona Diamondbacks fall to Chicago Cubs in series opener - Man, this game is so fresh in my mind, it's like it was only yesterday.... Oh, right, it was just this morning. Joe Saunders gave us a good start, but the bullpen finally gave out- though only a trickle, compared to the floods we're used to from the past few years.

• [Dbacks.com] D-backs go quiet after Bloomquist's leadoff HR - That moment of hope, and then all downhill from there, I'm afraid. Abrananaham did his best, but alas, four scores and twenty-seven outs later...

• [Bleed Cubbie Blue] Randy Wells, Most Of Bullpen Lead Cubs To 4-1 Win Over Diamondbacks - The Cubs used five relievers in the game, and BCB is already a little concerned at how Quade is using the Cubs bullpen- this is certainly something that could be a problem later on.

• [Chicago Breaking Sports] Cubs' bullpen preserves 4-1 win over D'backs - Only 26,292 tickets sold today, and that's thought to be the lowest Cubs attendance since 2002. Chicago is definitely looking at some lower attendance this season- is there a point where even Cubs fans surrender to despair and stop going to games?

The team did announce after today's game that they'll be sticking to their original rotation- Barry Enright pitches tomorrow, Armando Galarraga- or Andres, I'm not even sure anymore- pitches on Wednesday, and we'll have Ian Kennedy pitching the home opener against the Reds on Friday.

• [Dbacks.com] D-backs chime in on Parra-De La Rosa run-in - File this one away until we face the Rockies again. Do we play them again this year? I'll check the schedule... Oh, right, 74 more times.

• [AZ Central] Gibson on the CY/Montero interaction; Wednesday's starter: TBD; Drew/Mora updates; & other stuff - Parra/De La Rosa wasn't the only bit of a scuffle on Saturday- apparently Chris Young and Miguel Montero had a bit of a disagreement in the dugout? Miggy wasn't happy with CY's stolen base attempt in the ninth inning, but Gibby, again, approved. "I think that’s how you learn about each other. I think that’s very healthy.

• [Yahoo! Sports] Fan's take: Bullpen shows improvement for Arizona Diamondbacks - Small sample size, of course, but Putz did look good in his first appearance. But how depressing is this fact: "...look for Putz to double the amount of saves of last year's team leader (15)[.]" I had forgotten no one managed more than 15 saves last year...

• [ESPN] D-backs happy to have Krause on board - Just a bit more about our newest employee in the clubhouse. He'll be looking at players for the draft in June, and then look at our minor league clubs and help the team work on their percentage from beyond the three-point line. (Possibly not true, I'm just guessing there.)

Around Baseball:

• [LA Times] Dodgers must address safety issue - And yet they don't seem to be doing too much. I haven't attended a game at Dodgers Stadium since about 1998, so I'll have to defer to the crowd on this one. I've seen varying reports of crowd behavior in LA, for those of you who have gone in recent years, do you feel like the attack is an isolated incident, or representative of a larger safety issue?

• [Fangraphs] 17 Predictions That Will Be Right | FanGraphs Baseball - "1. There will be blog entries written early in the season than begin by warning about small sample size, then go on to ignore sample size anyway." Well, I don't know who would every do something like that.... *cough* Hey, they mention Frenchy!

• [Denver Post] MLB "authenticator" at Coors Field will monitor baseballs from humidor to game use - So can we stop hearing about it now? Please? Please!? Really, if they have to go to this much effort just to show that it's being used fairly, I don't understand why they don't just not use the humidor at all. Build the team to fit the park, not the other way around.

• [Yahoo! Sports] Judge orders Clemens to keep quiet in perjury case - It's about time someone told him to shut up, this judge is my hero.

• [ESPN] 2011 MLB Baseball Power Rankings Week 1 - How completely random are these rankings? The NL West (without the DBacks) hold sports #10 through #13? The 0-3 Red Sox hold #7? The Cubs sit 14 spots above the team that beat them in their opening series? But the rankings will do what they're meant to- annoy people and get them talking about baseball.

Afternoon games are always my least favorite to lose, because they sort of ruin the rest of the day. Oh well, nothing to do but shake it off and get 'em tomorrow. Go DBacks.