Tick... Tick... Tick...

With last night's this morning's loss to the Giants, the Cubs find themselves with another blown opportunity. Some will tell you that the Cubs didn't lose any ground last night because the Nationals lost. The reality is that last night was one of the few nights when a win was a guaranteed one game pick up on the Wild Card lead as Atlanta and Washington were playing each other.

When you see that the Cubs are now getting almost as far behind second place in their DIVISION as they are from the Wild Card lead, chasing the Wild Card becomes problematic. Chasing Houston is what's the issue now.

And with so many teams bunched around .500, there may not be a lot of trading partners.

I'm beginning to have doubts that Jim Hendry will pull off even one big trade, much less the two needed to resuscitate this team.

A win today does not erase yesterday's failure to capitalize on a certain opportunity.