The Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals might be talking about trading Ryan Dempster Saturday morning, but Friday night the Cardinals put the kibosh on their would-be teammate's month-long scoreless streak, putting three runs on Dempster in the first inning of the Cardinals-Cubs series opener. A series of singles did the trick--Allen Craig, Matt Holliday, Carlos Beltran, and Yadier Molina all picked up base hits. Dempster's scoreless innings run ends at 33 1/3 frames--the best Cubs streak in more than 50 years.
This might be Dempster's last start as a Cub, but despite the rough start he managed to carve out a little history with it. If the Cardinals end up acquiring him before the July 31 trading deadline, this could be just the first of many good things he does on their behalf.
Dempster is in the last year of a four season, $52 million deal that looked much more ridiculous back when he signed it. Since then he's improbably gone from an occasionally unsteady closer to one of the more consistent starting pitchers in baseball.