I’m not a fan of How I Met Your Mother or animated gifs, but these are desperate times. This image could be interpreted one of two ways. That’s Carlos Marmol on the right wishing Ryan Dempster a happy birthday…or that’s Dempster after today’s game thanking Carlos for his work in the ninth.

If you missed it, here’s the line on Dempster. 8.0 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 1 BB and 6 strike outs. Oh, and by the way, it was his 35th birthday. I’m sure he left the mound today thinking he’d finally notch his first win of the season. Not the case.

Enter Carlos Marmol and two straight walks. The only good thing Marmol did was get Brandon Phillips to hit a double play ball to Ian Stewart. Stewart wasn’t able to handle it and a run scored on the error. Then a single to load the bases and another walk to make it 3-2 with no outs. Rafael Dolis was able to get the Cubs out of the the ninth with the game tied, but the Reds would score in the tenth to steal the win.

Marmol threw 18 pitches. Only four were strikes. 14 were sliders. He threw six straight sliders to the final batter he faced, Ryan Ludwick, to walk in a run. Ludwick was not interested in swinging.

Today was bad, but it’s becoming a disturbing trend. Dempster pitches a great game and the Cubs lose because of a blown save or offensive ineptitude. Here’s the stats for Dempster’s four starts this season:

28.1 IP (Average of 7 innings per start), 11 hits, 5 runs (only 3 earned), 29 strike outs and a 0.95 ERA. His record is 0-1. Every starter gets screwed once in a while, but this is crazy. The only real mistakes he’s made was giving up a two run homer to the Brewers and a throwing error against the Marlins that cost him a couple runs. Otherwise, he’s been nearly perfect. We were a little hard on Dempster before the season and said this rotation lacked an ace, but he’s made us eat our words. I like being wrong about things like that. I hope he can keep it up and eventually get himself some wins.

Filed under: Offense, Relief Pitching, Starting Pitching, The Cubs