No surprise with Peavy, Zambrano

Let’s start out with a little pop quiz: What was more predictable Sunday, Jake Peavy getting hurt again or Carlos Zambrano going off again?

OK, call it a tie considering each was probably a 10 on a scale of 10.

But that’s OK. Life is so erratic that any whiff of predictably is welcome regardless of how odoriferous.

Zambrano torched his Cubs teammates after they lost to the Cardinals?

Of course he did.

Jake Peavy left with a groin injury before the White Sox lost to the Tigers.

Of course he did.

Zambrano is that beacon of reliable insanity, Peavy a tower of dependable fragility.

At Comiskey Park on Sunday there was sort of a shrug after Peavy couldn’t come out for the fifth inning.

Shoulders likely were similarly shrugged in St. Louis when Zambrano threw the Cubs under, well, this time it was a double-decker bus.

There was a degree of integrity in both developments.

First Peavy since I had the misfortune of attending the Sox’ 7-3 loss to the Tigers.

Peavy tweaked the groin in his previous start and aggravated it in the second inning against Detroit.

“He’s been feeling it since (last week in) Boston,” Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Still, Peavy took the ball again and pitched 3 perfect innings to give the announced crowd of 25,149 the impression he might throw a no-hitter, perfect game, shutout or something else noteworthy.

“Today could have been a special day,” Peavy said later.

But the groin destroyed his mechanics and fan optimism as the Tigers scored 6 runs off him in the fourth inning.

Now, stop me if you heard this one: Peavy expects to miss some playing time. Pitching Sunday might not have been smart, but it was admirable.

There’s integrity in that, don’t you think?

Believe it or not there’s some in what Zambrano did, too, because it’s hard to dispute the quotes attributed to him that the Cubs’ play is “embarrassing” and as a whole they’re “a Triple-A team.”

Sorry, fans, but it is and they are.

Blame this Cubs losing streak on injuries, but the truth is that it fits neatly into their 103-year slapstick slump.

There’s no excuse for professionals to play as poorly in all phases of the game as the Cubs have been playing.

Somebody had to be frustrated enough to say so. Actually before Zambrano did the debate was whether the Cubs were more like minor-leaguers, a lineup during first week of spring-training games or a blend of both.

Zambrano cleared it up — the Cubs are playing like a Triple-A team, though that might be an insult to Triple-A baseball.

All Chicago baseball fans can hope for is that something positive will come out of this day of predictability by both sides of town.

Maybe Carlos Zambrano is so discouraged that he’ll waive the no-trade clause in his contract, the Cubs will dispatch him to higher ground somewhere, and their rebuilding can commence in earnest.

Meanwhile, maybe time off finally will enable Peavy to get healthy enough to pitch more than 5 straight starts before breaking down.

Jake Peavy will break down again, you know, just as Carlos Zambrano will crack up again, you know.

Isn’t there just a little comfort in recognizing that you can depend on something in this wacky world of ours?