Last night, the Cubs had a heartbreaking loss, again. The one responsible for blowing the game was Kevin Gregg, again.

In the bottom of the ninth inning with the Cubs leading 1-0, Gregg(pictured left) walked the light-hitting David Eckstein in front of the middle of the Padres' lineup. After somehow retiring superstar slugger Adrian Gonzalez, Chase Headley made Gregg pay with a two-out, game-tying double. Following an intentional walk to Kevin Kouzmanoff, Kyle Blanks really made Gregg pay with a three-run bomb to give the Padres the 4-1 victory, and give Gregg his sixth blown save in 29 chances.

Well thankfully, we won't be seeing anymore of Gregg in the ninth inning:

"I think we're going to make some changes as far as what we're going to do in late innings," Piniella said. "We'll have some more tomorrow."

Piniella didn't say who would be his new closer, though Carlos Marmol and Angel Guzman are considered the likeliest candidates.

Link(Chicago Tribune)

This was something I hoped to see after Gregg blew two saves in Florida, but the Cubs reported he'd dealt with a bit of a tired arm, and Gregg said he believed he fixed a problem in his mechanics that had led to him tipping pitches. Tipping pitches or not, you're not going to do well throwing 92 mph fastballs right down the heart of the plate to major league hitters as he did again tonight. They aren't holding softball bats, after all.

In his replacement will be Carlos Marmol or Angel Guzman, and I really believe it's a coin flip as to who the Cubs will choose for the role.

Really, I don't think there's any guarantee Marmol would be better than Gregg in the ninth inning. When Marmol's on, he's the nastiest pitcher on the planet. Unfortunately, we haven't seen that half as frequently as we did last season. While he still has a solid ERA of 3.51 and 67 strikeouts in 56.1 innings pitched, he has a -whopping- 52 walks in that span.

Now move Marmol to the ninth inning where the pressure is on a much greater deal, and hitters are being more patient. They're taking the at bats more seriously, doing anything to get on base. They may even be taking a strike. If Marmol continues to struggle with his control, that's really asking for trouble.

As for Guzman, he's been the Cubs' most consistent reliever all season long. The 27-year-old right-hander has a 2.42 ERA and has walked only 15 batters in 52 innings on the season. He has a superb WHIP of 0.98, and has allowed just a .590 OPS.

The question with Guzman(pictured right), is can he handle the pressure of the ninth inning? It's a whole different animal than any other inning, as I alluded to when discussing Marmol's control problems. We don't know the answer to whether or not Guzman can handle the role, but you don't know until you try him there.

And really, what do you have to lose? Even if Guzman's not what he's been in the setup role, he can't be much worse than Gregg at closer. I feel at this point they have to take a chance and if it doesn't work out, oh well, it wasn't working out before. If he is miserable in the role(which would really surprise me), then give Marmol a shot.

However, if it reaches that point, it will simply be a battle between Guzman and Marmol to potentially be the closer heading into 2010, as the Cubs' playoff hopes will be gone. It's not like those chances are looking great the moment anyway. That could change if they could start holding on to the leads in the ninth though. Who knows, maybe Guzman or Marmol could have an effect on the back of the bullpen like Francisco Rodriguez did for the 2002 World Series champion Angels.

As for Gregg, it's going to be interesting to see what the Cubs do with him. My guess would be he won't be pitching in many more crucial situations. They might be better off just making up an injury for him at this point like they did for David Patton and Andres Blanco(and please can they replace Miles with him now?). That would be the end of his time in a Cubs uniform, as he will be a free agent when the season is over. I don't think there's a Cubs fan out there right now that would have a problem with that.

UPDATE(8/18, 7:30 PM ET): Carlos Marmol, not Angel Guzman, was just named the closer. Marmol better throw the ball over the damn plate.


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