More of the same for Cubs

Dig in, Cubs fans. What you've been witnessing lately is probably going to be what you're going to witness for the foreseeable future.

Friday night's 6-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals was the Cubs' fourth in a row, and it dropped them to nine games under .500 at 23-32.

And for those of you who want to see “the kids” play, you got your wish.

The Cubs' youth movement that's not a youth movement was in full force, as five of the eight position-player starters were either rookies, young players or recent call-ups from the minor leagues: Darwin Barney, Starlin Castro, Lou Montanez, Tyler Colvin and DJ LeMahieu.

It's not really a “youth movement.” The inexperienced players are playing because of injuries to such veterans as Alfonso Soriano, Reed Johnson, Marlon Byrd and Aramis Ramirez.

LeMahieu made his first major-league start and picked up his first major-league hit (a single in the eighth inning) subbing for Ramirez, who sat with a stitched upper lip.

Manager Mike Quade sounded a positive tone about what the Cubs are running out there these days.

“Things could be worse,” he told reporters before the game. “My job is to come here in a good frame of mind every day, and that's what I do. I love watching these guys, and I love the energy of the kids and love that they're here working hard to help us win games and get better.

“Somebody said, the future is now, and maybe sooner than we wanted for some of them, but there's an opportunity there so let's see if they take advantage of it.”

There will be growing pains with the kids. Barney and Castro were a combined 0-for-8. Barney has only 2 hits in his last 17 at-bats.

At the other end of the order, Colvin was 0-for-3 with 2 strikeouts.

But the Cubs as a team didn't do much with Cardinals lefty Jaime Garcia (6-1), who gave up 4 hits and a run over 8 innings. Cubs starter Ryan Dempster (4-5, 6.32 ERA) gave up all 6 runs, 3 coming on Lance Berkman's first-inning homer and 2 coming on a homer by Albert Pujols in the fifth.

There isn't much Quade can do about the situation the Cubs are in other than to work through it.

“It's been day in, day out,” he said. “I don't want to talk about it anymore. That's the way it is. We'll find out a lot about our kids. We'll work hard to get better, come out and do a lot of early work, and a lot of extra work and have a lot of fun teaching, and try to win a ballgame every night.

“Either embrace the challenge or put your head between your legs and feel sorry for yourself. We're not going to do that.”

bmiles@dailyherald.com