Mets, Cubs in similar situations

Looking down on Wrigley Field, I couldn’t help but think of the plight of the two major-market teams down there: the Cubs and the New York Mets.

These old-time rivals from the old National League East both are spinning their wheels in their respective divisions these days, the Cubs in the Central and the Mets in the East.

The Mets have their own set of problems, with an owner that has given interviews of late and ripped his own players. Nothing like denigrating your own product.

The Cubs looked to be the better of this faded pair of teams Tuesday, winning 11-1 on a cold and windy night.

The victory improved the Cubs to 21-25 as they enter a key homestand against teams they should beat.

With Matt Garza going on the disabled list earlier in the day with a bone bruise in his right elbow, the Cubs are now without three-fifths of their starting rotation, their center fielder and their catcher.

“We don’t feel anything we’ve had here has been devastating enough to hang your head and throw in the towel and feel sorry for yourselves,” general manager Jim Hendry said. “We’ve got a very important homestand here where we have to make some hay here. We’re going to go on a very rough road trip after that. We’ve only played well in spurts but played well enough to realize we’re capable of doing better.”

One thing the Cubs need to do is get more run production from the middle of the order, particularly Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano, both of whom are on big-time home run and RBI droughts.

In Tuesday’s game, No. 2 hitter Darwin Barney drove in 2 runs in the Cubs’ 5-run second inning, giving him 23 RBI for the season. No. 3 hitter Starlin Castro (who also has batted leadoff), drove in 2 for the night, giving him 23. Both young players now have tied Soriano for the team RBI lead.

Hendry likes to talk about “RBI guys.” Of late, Ramirez and Soriano have not been that for the Cubs.

“We have a real different situation,” Hendry said. “We’ve had three guys that have hit at the front of the order, 1 or 2, whether it was Fuke (Kosuke Fukudome) and Barney and Castro, and their numbers obviously speak for themselves, their on-base numbers; some of the things we weren’t as good at in the past, now we’re excelling.

“With those guys getting on as much as they have, we have to do a better job of getting them in. There were years when we would have loved to have the averages and the on-base percentage we’ve had out of 1 and 2 no matter how Mike’s (manager Quade) shuffled the deck. We have a lot of guys that are playing well and swinging the bat well. Just collectively as a team, we haven’t swung well with men in scoring position.”

Some of the biggest cheers of the night were reserved for right fielder Lou Montanez, who hit an RBI double in his first at-bat with the team that drafted him in the first round in 2000.

“That’s a nice way to get my National League experience going,” said Montanez, who played parts of three years for Baltimore. “It’s a relief. You want to do something positive right from the get-go to calm down a little bit ... I always knew I was going to be a Cub, and I never wavered from that goal.”