Take It Easy, Cubs

Wednesday's Cubs game turned ugly very quickly, and if they take one thing from their 5-2 loss to the Rockies, it's this. Calm down. Take it easy. It's a long season, gentlemen, and mistakes will be made. Get over it, and move on.

The game started out well, with Rich Harden fanning the first four batters. But when he used 18 pitches to strike out Garrett Atkins in the second inning, Harden started to fall apart. He then gave up two runs in the second and third innings. The Atkins at-bat made him unreel a bit, and there was no bringing him back.

This then spread to the rest of the team. Though they came up with seven hits -- somehow -- no one was able to cross the plate until the fifth inning. Alfonso Soriano made an error on a routine fly ball. Mike Fontenot was picked off in an attempt to steal third that quelled the ninth inning rally that Derrek Lee started with a solo homerun.

The mistakes that lost the game for the Cubs today were the kind of mistakes that happen when a team is wound up too tight. So between us, Cubs, just calm down and enjoy yourselves a little bit. It's a bit easier to play that way.