We should be ashamed. All of us. We should go out and buy hairshirts and wear them while publicly flogging ourselves. We did the one thing you just can’t do. We doubted our man Carlos.

Three shaky outings in a row, including a complete meltdown at Miller Park just a week ago and we were ready to make excuses for him. Oh, it’s probably the toe. Maybe he had bad Indian food before the Yankee start? Perhaps we need a little Fung Shuei in the clubhouse?

Carlos told us what was wrong with him. Nothing. He said he was just overthrowing and that he was going to fix it. He said Hank White sat him down and told him to go back to “pitching” not “throwing.”

We should be ashamed of ourselves. We should know better. Carlos is crazy, he’s intense, he’s also very good at hurling a pelota with much malice of intent, but he’s no bullshitter. Has he ever made an excuse for anything? Of course not. It’s why we love the big lug. He said he’d get it together. He TOLD us he would.

Then he went out and keeled the Brewers for eight innings. We’ll never doubt him again.

These Cubs, for better or worse, are built on pitching. Hey, if you had Mark Prior, Carlos Zambrano and Kerry Wood you’d build around pitching, too. That’s not to say a little offense wouldn’t be nice, but, I digress (what’s new?)

So when the pitching began to implode a couple weeks ago it was a shock. Fourteen runs against the Marlins, eight and then nine runs against the Yankees, nine and eight to the Brewers, then twelve runs to the White Sox? Ugh.

Since that 12-2 hammering by the Sox, the Cubs have won three in a row and have allowed two runs…total. Greg Maddux, Mark Prior and Carlos decided enough was enough. (Besides, the Cubs have only scored 10 runs in those games, so it’s a good thing the pitching showed up).

Today, Kerry Lee Wood returns to action for the first time in three years. Oh, it just seems like it. Apparently Kerry made some starts in April, but we’ve forgotten them. Likely because they were painful to watch.

There’s no doubting Kerry’s ability, and for the first time in his life he seems to have accepted the fact that he will never be the consistently dominating force he should be unless he finds a pitching motion he can repeat. Rather, a good pitching motion he can repeat. After all, he’s pretty good at throwing ball four and yelling at the umpire. That’s a bad motion we don’t want a repeat of.

Is it so much to ask for the version of Kerry that torched the Braves twice in the 2003 playoffs? Good command, lots of nasty breaking pitches and fastballs that you could practically hear through the TV? OK, it probably is. But some version of that would work just fine.

The Cubs can do their Wild Card chances some good (we’ll worry about the Cardinals if we ever crawl to within five games of them again) in the next two weeks. After two more with the Brewers the Cubs host the road-weary Nationals for three, then go to Atlanta to take on Chip Caray and the Gang (much like Kool and the Gang, only queer-er) for four, then finish with three with the Fish before Derrek and E-ramis hop a flight to Detroit.

It’d be nice if Jim Hendry could find a full-time left fielder before the plane leaves for Atlanta, but well, we’re not going to write about it every day…are we?

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There was a great moment in last night’s game, one of those that sticks with you for a while. Corey Patterson legitimately saved the game with a diving catch off a would be RBI-double by Brady Clark. Corey arrived in the television picture at the last second, dove, full out, remembered to open his glove, made a sensational catch, and had the presence of mind to hop right up, make a good throw and double off Geoff Jenkins at second to end the Brewers last and only threat of the night. The crowd went nutty, and the team came out of the dugout to greet Corey, while Carlos did strange jumping exercises on the field.

Corey led off the bottom of the eighth and got a standing ovation. He deserved it. It was a great play at a critical time.

Then he struck out.

And got booed.

Just a reminder that Cubs fans have figured this stuff out. Ask the guys who’ve been around since about July of 2003 if Wrigley and it’s denizens are the happy, friendly, oh-it’d-be-nice-but-not-necessary-if-the-Cubs-win, place that nitwits think it is?

Corey got his moment, and then a reminder that we’d like to see him string those moments together.

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There’s a rumor in two New York newspapers (two? aren’t there like nineteen dailies out there) that the Mets and Yankees have discussed a trade that would send Gary Sheffield to the Mets for Mike Cameron. First off, I don’t think the Yankees are that dumb. Secondly, there are apparently Mets fans who aren’t sure the Mets should do it anyway. Huh? Look, Mike Cameron’s a nice player and Lord knows the Yankees need a center fielder, but they wouldn’t trade him for Garry Freakin’ Sheffield? Are they daft? Well, they are Mets fans, after all.

The Denver Post says the Cubs made another call to the Rockies yesterday. They are pretty sure it was about Preston Wilson, though it could have been about Brian Fuentes or Todd Helton or Bernie Lincicome’s hairpiece. What we know is that the Cubs are beyond reluctant to trade the recently recalled Ronny Cedeno. Shortstops who hit .370 in AAA don’t grow on trees. In fact, for the Cubs they have never existed. That’s not to say that Ronny’s not available in the right deal, just not for Preston.

Dusty was cryptic about how much Ronny will play, though he conceded that the kid won’t rot on the bench like he did in his first call up.

Why the Cubs just don’t trade Jerry Hairston Jr. to the Twins for Lew Ford and make a nice three-man rotation of Todd Walker, Neifi! and Ronny between second and short is beyond me. Well, actually, the Twins probably aren’t dumb enough to trade Lew for Jerry, but I’ll bet they’d trade something for him. Maybe Kirby Puckett’s glass eye or something?

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Finally I want to thank Kelly Dwyer for sitting in for me for almost all of the NBA Draft last night. It’s my own fault that he didn’t have a bigger and much deserved audience because I didn’t decide until the last minute that we were going to try it again this year and I was incommunicado for much of the evening. Take the time, read it, because it’s funnier and more insightful than anything else you’ll read about the draft. And it’s not every day we get a Sports Illustrated writer slumming at Desipio for almost four straight hours.