Game 56 Thread / Rockies @ Cubs (3 of 4)

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SP *Glendon Rusch SP Ryan Dempster
  1-2, 6.41, 12 K, 11 BB, 19.2 IP
6-2, 2.56, 56 K, 29 BB, 70.1 IP
       
CF Willy Taveras LF Alfonso Soriano
RF *Seth Smith SS Ryan Theriot
1B *Todd Helton 1B Derrek Lee
LF Ryan Spilborghs 3B Aramis Ramirez
3B *Ian Stewart C Geovany Soto
C Chris Iannetta RF *Kosuke Fukudome
2B Jeff Baker 2B Mark DeRosa
SS *Omar Quintanilla CF Reed Johnson
P *Glendon Rusch P Ryan Dempster

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former Cub Glendon Rusch makes his first appearance at Wrigley since September 4, 2006. After a none too successful comeback with the Padres earlier this year (6.41 ERA in 12 relief appearances), the Rockies signed him, sent him to Triple-A Colorado Springs, recalled him after two successful appearances for the Sky Sox, and you know now everything you need to know about what a desperate season the Colorado Rockies are having.

Cubs Game Notes Fun Fact of the Day: the Cubs have held a lead in every game they've played since May 9th. That's 21 games and marks the first time since 1935 the Cubs have had such a run.

Favorite Account of Friday's Developments (from Troy Renck in the Denver Post):

...even in Wes Craven's dreams, it's hard
to describe what happened to the Rockies on Friday at Wrigley Field.

 

Tags: 
Gameday Open Thread
Submitted by Cubnut on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 10:30am
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Comments

Submitted by Little Nate Lewis
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 2:07pm

Nice to see Cotts go 1-2-3.

Submitted by navigator
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 2:54pm

Fukudome should be credited with the save in the ninth, not Marmol.

6 in a row!

Submitted by nohit
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 2:57pm

This team is pretty good.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 2:57pm

So Lou interestingly took Soriano out for the 9th and put Edmonds out there in CF and shifted Johnson to LF.

Submitted by nohit
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 3:01pm

I like how Fonzie got the "we didn't even consider the possibility that he might run" steal.

Submitted by crunch
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 4:37pm

about time the low ob%, high slugging, and slower leadoff guy tied the SB mark of the high ob%, low slugging, #5 hitter.

maybe he'll get more RBIs than xbase hits this year if reed johnson and the pitcher keep getting on base for him.

Submitted by Green Lantern
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 3:03pm

nice little team....wow. what a month.

the cubs have actually won 17 games or more in 5 of the last 6 months (june, july, sep in 07 and april and may of 08).

17 games X 6 months is 102 wins.

gallagher continues his audition tomorrow...i'm not so sure he'll have as good of a time without the wind pounding in from left like tuesday.

great stuff though....this team is so fun, the right field approach today that brenly talked about a ton was awesome.

Submitted by nohit
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 3:52pm

Latest ESPN Power Rankings. How 'bout that?

/Mel

Submitted by Dmac
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 4:47pm

Great win, but how in hell are the Cardinals keeping pace with us? Smoke and mirrors? I keep waiting for reality to sink in for that team.

Submitted by WISCGRAD
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 5:02pm

Yeah, Todd Wellemyer has no business being 6-1 with a 3.16 ERA. Wish he would have done that well for us.

Submitted by The E-Man
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 5:31pm

As much as I loathe saying it, the Cardinals org., along with the Braves, are the best in the NL. LaRussa's record over the last ten years speaks for itself. They even won the World Series after a starting pitcher dies! He is the best there is now... It sucks - the Cubs would be much further ahead in the East or even the West...

The positive thing - this year it is looking like the Wild Card could come from the Central. At least, head to head against the other divisions, the Central has looked pretty strong.

Submitted by The E-Man
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 5:32pm

BTW - not mentioned yet - big Kudos to Cotts.

Submitted by crunch
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 6:31pm

so another ump had to leave the game today to go to hospital?

is this the 3rd so far for cubs games this year? i know there's been 1 other one, but i think there was a 2nd, too.

Submitted by nohit
on Sat, 05/31/2008 - 9:59pm

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/bas...

Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of the Carlos Zambrano- Michael Barrett fight. Zambrano still has a Barrett bobblehead doll in his locker.

Submitted by Cubster
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 7:27am

in case nobody noticed (or cares)...

Ned Yost has bailed on batting the pitcher 8th.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2008_...

apparently the league was pitching around JJ Hardy who's hitting .249 and Jason Kendall who started out hot in April but is now down to .256

Submitted by 10man
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 12:59pm

uh i dont see anything in the link that talks about batting the pitcher 8th.

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 4:48pm

Yea... except for the fact that the box score shows the pitcher batting 9th. :)

Submitted by Dmac
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 10:28am

At the risk of beating a dead horse, have some sympathy for the fans in Cincinatti - check out what Dusty did to some of their best arms in an extra - inning game last week (2nd item down from header):

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/sports/baseball/...

I don't want to hear anymore from the Dusty apologists after this travesty - that game proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the man is stuck on stupid when it comes to managing a pitching staff.

Submitted by Wes
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 11:09am

The practice of using starters in extra innings is not uncommon. It would have been Harang's side day, so instead of throwing 60 pitches in his side session, he threw 63 pitches in the game.

As far as using Volquez goes, please explain me why it's drastically different to throw 39 pitches on Wednesday night at midnight as opposed to throwing 60 or 65 pitches on Thursday at noon in his scheduled side session. I promise you his shoulder wasn't that opposed to the 12 hours worth of difference. Now, if you run him out there for 70 pitches or more, that's a little different. Using him sparingly the night before he would normally throw anyway isn't that ridiculous of a concept.

I'm not trying to defend Dusty here, because I was never a big fan of his pitching staff management (particularly the way he managed his bullpen), but I don't think this is the tree to go barking up.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 12:39pm

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=880

Submitted by Wes
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 1:00pm

Eh, that changes things a little for me. I watched most of the game and did hear George say that Harang's side day was THAT day and that Volquez's side day was the next day. I should have known that. I'm stupid. Didn't really think about where they were in the rotation.

Harang is definitely one of the most durable guys in the game, but throwing 103 pitches on the 22nd, a side day on the 24th, and another 63 pitches on the 25th is probably a little excessive. He did get an extra day before his next start because of an off day the next day. Good news for Dusty is that he got rocked and got yanked after only 70 pitches. Didn't even have to worry about his pitch count.

EDIT: All of that works on the idea that Harang threw his side session as scheduled on the Saturday, which is highly likely.

Submitted by Dmac
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 11:37am

Fair enough, Wes. But I would tend to think that unless it's a critical game to win, you should rest your #1 whenever possible.

Submitted by Wes
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 11:49am

I don't disagree with that. It should definitely be noted that Dusty blew through his entire bullpen in 7.2 innings. Belisle went 4.1 in that game. Then here's what followed:

Lincoln - .2
Burton - 1.1
Affeldt - .2
Weathers - 1.0
Cordero - 2.0
Fogg - .2
Bray 1.1

The 6 pitchers who are not the closer combined to throw 5.2 innings, which seems a bit silly, doesn't it?

Now, there is a point somewhere out there, some certain inning, where a manager HAS to turn to his starters. You'd like to think that would at least be the 15th or 16th for Lou. In a related story, Lou probably wouldn't burn up half his bullpen by the seventh.

Dusty DID put himself in that situation by burning through everyone. Once he did so, I wasn't really that oppposed to the way that he used Harang and Volquez. The thing is that it probably shouldn't come to that until much later than the 12th.

Submitted by Chad
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 12:39pm

I can't believe he did that either. I can't believe Captain Double Switch didn't keep this from happening.

Submitted by Chad
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 11:51am

please use the reply button.

and as wes said, he was going to throw one way or the other.

Submitted by Mister Whipple
on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 1:29pm

At last! Someone else who cares about threaded responses. At last I'm joining a club with Chad as the president!

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