Game 44 Recap: Cubs 4, Pirates 3

We Walk

W - Marquis (2-3), .800 homestands

L- Dumatrait (1-2)

S- Wood (10)

Box Score, Photos

Things to Take from This Game

1. More walks than hits

Dumatrait walked 7 in 4.2 innings, with 53 balls and 52 strikes. He only gave up four hits, or else the game wouldn't have been close. Dumatrait walked the bases loaded in the third, leading to a Soriano sac fly and Cedeno bloop single for two runs. Three more walks in the fourth led to a Johnson sac fly, and two walks in the fifth led to a Fukudome single just over Bixler's head, for the final Cubs run.

2. Marquis was just good enough

His pitching line (6IP, 4H, 1 BB, 3K, 3R) looks better than his performance from where I'm sitting. He had a nice strike of seven consecutive outs, but made a couple of mistakes to Paulino that could have been home runs, and had spotty command of the fastball and slider.

3. 3 RBI for LaRoche

LaRoche hit a two run homer in the first that suprised most everyone when it made it into the left-center basket. He added an RBI single in the sixth

4. Solid Relief

Howry, Marmol and Wood provided three scoreless innings.

The 8-2 homestand-closing, warm news for a cold day at Wrigley game recap, and some life-saving, pride-stroking parachat recap shout-outs, below.

Game Recap

Pregame

• Holy Mother of Pavoratti, who is the guy singing the Anthem? Heck of a voice. Ah. Patrick Blackwell. Truly a moving performance.

Inning 1 - Top

• Freddy Sanchez lines one off the base of the wall in the left field wall. It was sort of weird. The fans barely reacted, and Soriano just jogged a couple feet to his left to play the carom. Could hardly tell from anyone's resonse that anything had happened
• McLouth pops up to Lee, just to the right of the pitcher's mound.
• Bay flies to shallow center, Johnson calls off Fukudome.
• LaRoche lines one out to left-center, just into the basket. It was sort of a low, slicing liner. And again, really oddly, there seems to be no sort of reaction from the fans. Sort of surprised it got out, looked much more like a split-the-gapper.
• Nady grounds out. 2-0 game.

Inning 1 - Bottom

• Soriano lines a single to left.
• Cedeno flies out to right.
• Lee bouces one back to Dumatrait, for a very easy 1-6-3 DP to end the inning

Inning 2 - Top

• Mientkiewicz walks. Ugh.
• Marquis does his best to throw a ball away, but Soto makes a great lunging back-hand.
• Paulino skies one to left. Marquis elevated a fastball, and Paulino just did get under it.
• Bixler chases a slider for the strikeout. Nice pitch.
• 3-2 count on Dumatrait. geh.
• Dumatrait lines one opposite field. Fukudome is well positioned, catches it easily.

Inning 2- Bottom

• Ramirez flies to center.
• Fukudome grounds to LaRoche
• and Soto K's swinging. Easy inning

Inning 3 - Top

• Marquis seems to be getting the slider to work a bit more for him.
• Sanchez defends against one, flying lazily to left.
• Marquis runs a fastball right into McLouth's right kneecap. Makes a really nasty "thud" sound. As a guy who drafted McLouth, anticipating a breakout season, I am not pleased. Neither is McLouth.
• Len and BJB speculate if it was intentional. Sure didn't look like it.
• Quick 6-4-3 DP from Bay.

Inning 3 - Bottom

• Three pitches way outside to DeRosa, then one way inside, four a leadoff walk.
• and Johnson walks on five pitches. Nice
• high pitch, and it just sort of squirts out of Paulino's glove. DeRosa takes third, Johnson holds at first.
• 3-1 on Marquis
• Trying to bunt, and Dumatrait walks Marquis. Bases get walked loaded for Soriano.
• Big, slow, rolling breaking ball fools Soriano for a called strike two. 1-2 count. Pitch in the dirt, 2-2 count.
• Some sort of breaking pitch gets too much of the plate, Soriano lines it very sharply, but towards McLouth in left-center. Sacrifice fly. 2-1 Pirates. Runner at 2 holds.
• Every time I see Cedeno, he does something good. Works a 2-1 count, and fists a blooping single for an RBI. 2-2 game.
• Ump is calling the high curve for a strike.
• Lee inside outs a lazy fly to right field. Marquis holds at second.
• 3-2 count on Ramirez, the 34th pitch of the inning ends it with a fly out to Nady in right.

Inning 4 - Top

• LaRoche flies to Soriano, just short of the warning track. Imagine the most lackadaisical basket catch off of the hip that you can, and Soriano's was twice that.
• BJB with an interesting talk about Ed Montague being a left-handed umpire, and having to reach back for baseballs from the ump.
• Nady K's swinging
• and Mienkiewicz grounds back to Marquis. Easy inning

Inning 4 - Bottom

• Fukudome works a walk. Nice battle.
• Another long AB, but Soto K's swinging
• DeRosa grounds one through the left side hole. Fukudome makes a wide turn at second, has to scamper back when Bay throws behind him
• Double steal. Fukudome gets a bad jump, and Paulino makes a nice throw, just barely short-hopping Mientkiewicz's glove by an inch or two. Mientkiewicz whiffs on it, and it bounces away. Big gift for the Cubs, Fukudome would have been out
• Johnson then hits a sacrifice fly to Bay. 3-2 game. DeRosa holds at second.

Inning 5 - Top

• Marquis elevates another pitch to Paulino, this time a hanging slider, and again Paulino gets under it, flying it to the warning track in left.
• Lots of better sliders to Bixler, who eventually K's on a check swing.
• Dumatrait grounds out to Cedeno. Seven in a row put down by Marquis.

Inning 5 - Bottom

• Soriano pops out to Sanchez
• Cedeno bunts, but it goes back towards Dumatrait.
• Lee Walks
• Ramirez walks. That's number 6. Dumatrait has thrown 4000* pitches
• * = 96
• Fukudome lines one over shortstop, scoring Lee. 4-2
• Soto walks. Second inning he's walked three Cubs, as Len reminds us. Even better, pitch would have been a wild pitch, had it not been a walk.
• Marino Salas in. Bases loaded
• 53 balls, 52 strikes for Dumatrait
• DeRosa flies out to Nady. Slams the bat to the ground. You worry that for as bad as Dumatrait was, this is a 2-run game with Marquis on the mound.

Inning 6 - Top

• Sanchez lines a single to left.
• and McLouth is up as the tying run. I've got a bad feeling about this.
• Slow roller to DeRosa, who runs at Sanchez and tags him as Sanchez dives to avoid the tag. He then sort of shut-puts the throw in the general direction of first bases, ball rolls towards the dugout. Soto slides for it backing it up, but McLouth takes second. One out, one runner on second.
• Bay flies to left center, Johnson calls off Soriano. Runner holds.
• LaRoche singles through the right side hole, McLouth scores. 4-3 game.
• Nady lines out to right.

Inning 6 - Bottom

• Hoffpauir on deck to hit for Marquis.
• Johnson flies to Bay
• John Grabow in for Salas, a lefty-lefty matchup.
• Hoffpauir K's swinging.
• Len tells us that Hoffpauir is the 14th "home-grown" player to play on the Cubs MLB team this season.
• Soriano K's swinging.

Inning 7 - Top

• Howry in.
• Mientkiewicz pops to just right of the second base bag. Cedeno finally calls of DeRosa to catch it.
• Paulino walks. Tying run now on base.
• Hit and run, Bixler tries to hit it through the open right side, but DeRosa is able to recover, get it, and throw Bixler out. Paulino advances to second
• Jason Michaels hits for Grabow
• Michaels hits a chopper off the plate, Ramirez's throw short-hops Lee, who blocks the ball in front of him. runners on 1 and 3.
• Sanchez flies to Fukudome, ending the threat.
• BJB with a boisterous shout-out to start the Seventh Inning Stretch. Nice enthusiasm.
• Nice work, Bob.

Inning 7 - Bottom

• Tyler Yates in to pitch
• Cedeno K's swinging
• and Lee grounds out to SS
• Ramirez also grounds to SS. Bixler bobbles it, recovers for the out

Inning 8 - Top

• McLouth K's looking.
• Bay walks
• and LaRoche K's swinging at a slider.
• Marmol K's the side, getting Nady swinging.

Inning 8 - Bottom

• Fukudome K's swinging
• Soto flies out to Bay
• and DeRosa K's on a foul tip

Inning 9 - Top

• Wood in to close.
• Mientkiewicz rolls one up the line to Lee, who takes it to the bag unassisted
• Paulino stares at a beautiful slider for strike three.
• Bixler takes a fastball on the corner for strike three, and what he thought or hoped was ball four. Game over, an 8-2 homestand.

Parachat Recap

Inning 1

• Rob fires me. Again. I call his bluff.
• Why is Rob's TV showing to a Cinderalla DVD?
• Mark Prior
• Bored, middle-aged algebra teachers in Gary, Indiana

Inning 2

• Eh.
• Things not to yell, and where not to yell them.

Inning 3

• McLouth's plunking
• Fat asses.
• Mwahahhaaa, the lag is on the other foot, today!
• is Frankie Valli culture? (no.)
• Heads up!
• Who's vacationing, where?
• Good beers

Inning 4

• What's been happening while you were on vacation? (a lot.)
• Things mentioned in parachat more frequently than Harry Caray
  • Corner Gas
  • Garden Claw Gold
  • Cla Meredith
• Forced smiles are bad for you.
• Trying to take years off of my life.
• Neil Young Rules.
• The Fukudome bobblehead
• Bobbling pocks.
• Sebum
• "Scratch 'n' Ooze"
• Cubs facial hair: consensus is Soto's is excellent, Johnson's is bad. We miss Mitre and Clement.
• "That's a weird little thing on Johnson" = lots of unintented juvenile comedy

Inning 5

• CT Steve is a recurring guest character on Scrubs. You heard it here, first.
• Songs about bunnies.
• Who is Hermione, and what are these pictures that people are discussing? I probably don't want to know.
• Perjury and extortion in parachat
• and scalping.
• Who is in your league?
• How to celebrate Carlos's looming 21tst birthday?
• Making fun of people who aren't present to defend* themselves
• * = rant and rave
• We Love Umlauts.
• "people lining up to kick Edmonds in the umlauts" = nohit.
• Devo

Inning 6

• MLB players with NASCAR names.
• An entire half-inning full of NASCAR names
• Who is getting arrested for what when we go to Vegas for Carlos's 21st?

Inning 7

• Music Producers
• Andy does the recap for inning 7 from here: "no one cares about the game." (In reference for more obscure musical discussion in a crucial game situation.)
• What does the parachat recap mean in your life?
  • Evidently, way more than it should. Good grief, now I feel the obligation to use my awesome power wisely.
• Suggestions about self-produced chat recaps.
• Carlos: let's talk about two-legged canadian cats who like to hop between justin timberlake's nuts after he makes love to rosie o'donnell with ricky lake watching and mark grace smoking a doobie while he talks on the cellphone with abe alvarez, former Red Sox prospect who flamed out and recently got DFA'd. alvarez, by the way, pitched with his cap crooked because he only had one eye.
• Mister Whipple: I, Transmission, think you are totally awesome.
• CT Steve: and I think you are, too.
• There, now leave me alone.
• Bad polar bear jokes. They're still better than no polar bear jokes

Inning 8

• Apologizing to Mrs. Andy for the polar bear joke.
• "The day you were born"jokes.
• Hog Thunder.
• Fighting for exclusive rights to parachat sounds
• We get a special celebrity guest, whose name shall be withheld to protect the soft and squishy recapper.
• and then scare him away.
• PENIS!
• and a second celebrity joins. Frankie Valli!
• BEES!
• God, it's a plague of H-list celebrities.
• This, this is why we can't have nice things.
• Birds that eat ticks off of hippos.

Inning 9

• Am I the Dick Cheney of Parachat? (yes.)
• Sneezing yourself into injury and incontinence.
• Whipple wants us to know that this game was produced by Brian Eno.

Oh yeah: Cubs' record in games recapped moves to 6-2.