If there’s a haunting sense of deja vu about the Cubs, there’s a good reason for it.

The Florida Marlins celebrated their first three-game winning streak of the season Wednesday with a 9-3 victory over the Cubs at Dolphin Stadium.

Having lost 18 of 22, the Cubs are 18-28. If that rings a bell, it’s because the 2002 club had the same record on the same date. For those who don’t remember what happened after that, manager Don Baylor found himself looking for a new job on July 5, 2002.

Nobody is saying yet that the same fate awaits current Cubs boss Dusty Baker, but the mood no doubt will be an angry one Friday at Wrigley Field, when the Cubs return home to play the Atlanta Braves and begin the ‘tough’ portion of their schedule.
Leadoff man Juan Pierre bemoaned his own poor play after the game and then went to bat for Baker.

“Another thing is how Dusty’s catching all the flak because we’re not performing well,” said Pierre, who has an on-base percentage of .269, well below average for a good leadoff man.

“He bends over backwards 10 times for us, and for us to go out there and perform like that for him and it reflects him, it’s real frustrating.”

“That’s probably more frustrating than my play, not only letting the team down but letting him down. He does everything for us. He lets you go out there and play. He lets you be a man.”