Chicago Herald-American

When you've pissed off the general manager of one of the teams you cover, the best way to make up is to play a little softball. The Sun-Times' Chris DeLuca usually doesn't miss a chance to take a shot at the Cubs and their futility -- many of those shots well-deserved and well done. But after infuriating Jim Hendry by publishing a comment a reporter overheard an irritated Lou Piniella make about Milton Bradley in the privacy of his office in May (''We pay the guy $30 million and nothing's ever his fault.''), DeLuca put away the machete and pulled out the 16-inch Clincher.

"Had someone told the Cubs they'd be the same distance from first nearly two months [after Aramis Ramirez' injury] ... would they have taken that?" DeLuca wrote in this sidebar in Friday's paper.

"Yeah, I would have taken that," general manager Jim Hendry said. "You take  the final result and the journey getting there, and it doesn't make you feel great, but collectively for how it's gone and how little we've hit with men in scoring position ... I think we are somewhat fortunate not to be behind farther."

It's a legitimate angle -- the Cubs were the same 2 1/2 games behind the Brewers after beating them Thursday night as they were when Ramirez got hurt. But if you really wanted to, you could have also focused on the missed opportunity:

• Since Ramirez went out, only one team in the NL Central played better than .500 baseball -- the Houston Astros, who were tied for last place (12-17) when Ramirez went out and were 26-22 since to move into fifth place.
• The Cubs are 23-25 since Ramirez was hurt, including an 8-12 stretch prior to the Brewers series where five of the eight wins were against woeful Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
• In virtually the same span without an even better player in Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers were 29-21.
• Only one player stepped up throughout Ramirez' absence -- Derrek Lee, who was hitting .209 when Ramirez went out but has hit .321 with 11 homers and 33 RBIs in 42 games since then to raise his average to .281.

Not that Chris didn't acknowledge the obvious reason for the Cubs' ability to "survive" Ramirez' injury. "Still, the Cubs have weathered the loss remarkably well thanks to stability in the NL Central," he wrote.

Stability? An interesting choice of words. I think "mediocrity" would be more accurate. But this was no time to be mean.

NL Central standings since Aramis Ramirez was injured:

Houston     26-22  .542     ---

Milwaukee  25-25  .500    2

Pittsburgh  25-26  .490     2 1/2

St. Louis     25-27  .481     3

CUBS          23-25   .479    3

Cincinnati   23-26   .469    3 1/2