GAME 19 REVIEW
Apparently Dontrelle had some crazy streak of never losing in April in his career. That was before he met the his lefty match, the one, the only, THE Sean Marshall. An efficient 7 inning, 96 pitch outing (AAA lineup notwithstanding) and Marshall comes away with his 2nd victory of the season while Willis's streak ends. I only listened to the game on XM radio, but I'm guessing the chilly weather and the fierce wind blowing in helped suppress the score.
The Cubs adapted to the weather well though, executing "small ball" to perfection. After an Aramis Ramirez walk, #5 hitter Michael Barrett sacrificed Ramirez over and "Marlin-killer" Matt Murton brought him in with a single. In the 7th, the Cubs added 2 more runs after a Barrett double (in which he jammed a finger sliding into second, luckily he was scheduled for a day off tomorrow), another RBI hit by Murton (this time a double), a sac bunt by Jacque Jones (at least he can do something against lefties) and the most exciting play in baseball, a suicide squeeze dropped down by Jerry Hairston, that was good enough to not only score Murton from third but Hairston was safe at first(later to be picked off by Willis).
Howry gave up his 2nd run of the season in a rocky 8th inning, which included having to face Miguel Cabrera representing the go-ahead run. Dempster though shut the door in the 9th with a 1-2-3 inning and his numbers so far this season are a Gagne-like: 10 K, 3 BB, 0 HR, 11 IP, 1.64 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, .154 BAA. Another shining example of how spring training numbers don't mean a thing.
A bona fide winning streak now at three games, with the major league debut of Angel Guzman tomorrow in the sunshine. A sweep would be quite nice against these guys.
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