Thread for Games 142, 143 / Cubs @ Reds

i hope we see a extra leftie in the lineup tonite
and i dont mean d. ward

fukadome
fontenot
hoffpauer
edmonds

i am all for lee and soriano
sitting
on the bench maybe right next to
gerald perry.

how bout this lineup

theriot
fontenot
hoffpauer
ramirez
soto
edmonds
johnson
fukadome

lets shake things up a little

this is Lou's lineup:

Sori/Riot/DLee/ARam/Soto/Hoffpauir (RF)/DeRosa (2B)/Johnson/Marquis

vs. Dustbuster's "the ex-cub factor" lineup:

Dickerson/Keppinger/Phillips/Votto/Encarnacion/Bruce/Patterson/Bako/Cueto

Brandon Webb crushed again vs Dodgers...the Dodgers won 7-2,so the Snakes are in 2nd place.

5.2 IP, 5H, 7 ER, 7R, 6 BB, 6 K, 1 HR (Manny being Manny)

and Randy Johnson has been scratched for his start on Sunday vs Dodgers due to shoulder fatigue.

DLee gets a double in the first to celebrate his 33rd birthday, replay shows it was a gift from the third base ump!

I really enjoy seeing Theriot hit solid singles after both Soriano Bombs.

Soriano putting the damn team on his shoulders...ok lets finish it off and get back on track...I'm no big fan of Marshall but Harang has been simply awful this year, we should be able to win tommorrow.

good thing lou did not take my call about lineup
soriano is killing it and should have one more ab

i still cannot believe all those lefties
on bench vs. a right hander.

for those watching on Comcast telecast, it's been fun watching Brenly calling signs from the pitcher all night, 7th inning Marquis changeup, and 6th inning Bako call for pitchout and the old fake 3rd/1st by the pitcher...he even gave details about the hook (index,little fingers) and shaking that is the 1st/3rd...a fist is a pitchout.

Fun

also Marquis sucks (just kidding)...MAJOR KUDO's Jason. This was so very important to pitch well in Sept...not to mention hitting a HR in the 8th!

Jason F-ing Marquis baby!!!

back to padding their run differential

DLee 3 hits on his birthday. Save some runs for tomorrow fellas.

After losing 8 in a row and seemingly out of it, Dodgers turn it around and take the division lead away from Arizona.

Winning is fun.

Dear Michael Wuertz -

You suck. Very very badly.

Go Away,
Cubs Fans

although I really don't like the walks by our bullpen with 10 and 9 run leads.
pitchers behind against 9 of 10 batters so far in 8th and 9th.

Wuertz + Smardzija = 0.0IP, 6R, 3H, 2BB, HBP...with a 9 run lead. kinda leaves a bitter taste.

Oswalt pitched a 1 hit complete game shutout vs Rockies in colorado...so some of the streak was due to that buzzsaw

...hope we don't see him next weekend (if we do, it will be friday night)

Well let's hope Soriano continues to be on a homer hot streak, just like he was in September of last season. He definitely ignites the offense like nobody else can.

i think wuertz is gonna be right behind howry on the
pecking order lou was not happy if i as lou i would have went
to mound and told wuertz thats why you spent 2 months at iowa.
and why you wont be here next year.

lou plays fontenot just enough seems like he always gets a hit

fontenot has been are cleanup hitter a few times recently,
you can only hope to slow him down.

Well I played "Go Cubs Go" even though that song grates on me a little bit, in thanks to the baseball gods.

18 hits, 4 walks and amazingly, no double plays.

Scott Eyre would look pretty good in that bullpen right about now.

Back in '03 McFail lamented that if Guzman hadn't been hurt in August the Cubs would have brought him up and, replacing such notables as Veres and the six-fingered wonder, the Cubs would have made it to the World Series. Now, five years later, a Cub nation turns its lonely eyes to you, Angel Guzman. If the offense can get it going, he may be the key the last three weeks - the bridge from the starters to Marmol and Wood.

You guys hear about this?

http://tinyurl.com/5vaf8p

Piniella almost wound up in Pittsburgh for the Reds series.

I have no idea why some fans are shocked
------------
I don't think it's about him being a #1 pitcher, it's being shocked that he's back to full health again.

Lou's "thinking outside of the box" lineup:

Soriano/Hoffpauir (RF)/DLee/ARam/Soto/DeRosa (2B)/Edmonds/Theriot/Marshall

vs.

Dusty's ex-Cub lineup being benched

Dickerson/Keppinger/Phillips/Votto/Encarnacion/Bruce/Cabrera/Hanigan/Harang

looks like CPat called in a Dusty favor to get into today's lineup

wow...a totally empty parachat for a tie game in the 7th.

the sori hop...he nearly gave away a free baserunner again today. neat.

yesterday...bases loaded...2 out...runners going on contact...

soriano runs, camps under the ball, jumps, goes off-center, and catches the ball wrist-crooked with about 2' of air under him from his hop.

that's inexcusable, dangerous, and with all runners going on contact could have scored all 3 if missed.

he's in no position to throw when he comes down off those hops...his momentum to the plate is halted (and in some cases he jumps backwards)...and it's getting to be just plain old bad baseball even when he does catch it. the reputation of your arm can only go so far when you can't/won't fundamentally catch a simple popup and be in position to continue the play afterwards.

Anyone at Parachat? I'm bored; football ain't helping, either.

You can always count on Ronny Cedeno to make things worse when it matters.

Looks like Cedeno just joined Howry and Wuertz in Lou's doghouse.

How isn't this Wood's fault? Sure, Cedeño made the error, but Wood loaded the bases against incredibly subpar hitters. When a closer doesn't have it, he doesn't have it; "Quick Hook" Piniella should have one in the ninth inning, too.

Sigh. If tomorrow's an off day, we're fucked.

now i get to steam about this loss for 2 days...

That was a 9th inning of Cubbery if there every was one. I felt like I was watching a mid-90s game or something. At least the Brewers are going to lose as well...

As bad as that play was by Cedeno that should have ended the game----Wood just didn't do the job---two walks in the 9th will always lead to trouble---thats a tuff lost

It's games like this that make me wonder why I weast so much time, energy, and emotion on something I have absolutely no control over.

I blame wood completely...you can't walk people in the 9th trying to be too cute...but this is reason #1 you bring your closer into non save situations if he hasn't pitched for 2-3 days.

Definitely limping to the finish here :(...gotta get going again. We are pretty much a lock for the wild card but it would be dissapointing to have a season like this has been for 5 months and not win the division.

Thank you Kerry Wood for the choke performance. Lou's gotta be loving the bullpen's performances of late. Why does this team suck so bad in September?
Lou needs to bench Lee if he's serious about winning. This has been putrid. Completely Useless By.....

Can someone explain what happened on the Cedeno error?

sharp grounder on the SS side of second base, hit the edge of the grass and had a minor deflection from this but still hit Cedeno in the glove and squirted into short cf. Should have been a double play to end the game. No question it's an error...in fact it reminded me of Alex Gonzalez in game 6 because it didn't end the game but at that point the game was lost (although AGon's grounder was in a different location).

this just in...

Lou's ordered Matt Sinatro to drive Cedeno to St Louis.

Brewers do play 4 games vs Phillies next week (starting thursday), so the magic number (either division or wildcard) will drop 4 points total due to that series.

Phils @ Milw 9/11-9/14

Maybe Lou will decide that now is the time to give his best reliever the job of closer.

It's hard to dislodge a $48 million right fielder and to replace a closer in September, but maybe this is the good that will come from the Cubs' mini-swoon.

In other news, the Iowa Cubs' suspect pitching has caught up with them and they are being eliminated in the semifinals this afternoon.

Daytona, on the other hand, doesn't have much of a batting order but they have plenty of pitching--starters Hung-Wen Chen, Jay Jackson, Casey Coleman, relievers Schlitter, Jordan Latham, Blake Parker, among others--and lead 1-0 in the FSL finals.

I was thinking more along the line of Leon Durham when I saw Cedeno's ole' of that DP grounder - the kid seems to get some bad brain cramps in crucial situations. But I agree that Woody should have been yanked - but in favor of exactly whom at this point?

well this sucks thought it was a win changed the channel
then came back to game only to see reds celebrating
well this is just gonna be a all around bull-s sunday
if only he bears could win well like i said a bull shit
sunday.

All on Cedeno -- Wood was rusty and had no slider -- routine play. He rushed it -- very definition of a choke.

Lou choked as well -- should have walked the enxt hitter to laod the bases. Too nagry to think.

The only thing worse than losing 2 of 3 to the hapless Reds is splitting at home (and damn near getting swept) with the pathetic Pods.

1. marshall deserved a better fate.

2. hard to blame this on wood, having only pitched once in a week. then again, hard to blame cedeno also, but he sure did look away from the ball at exactly the wrong moment. why not call it a draw?

3. any explanation for lou using soto in the day-after-the-night-game? soto's only offensive contribution was a hbp. will soto disappear in sept 2008 as theriot disappeared in sept 2007?

4. one can only hope harden does not have a rust problem the way wood did. if harden only goes 2 or 3 innnings in st louis in the first game of the series, the bullpen will be a mess from then through houston. especially with zambrano being a question mark.

5. the next 20 games should be quite the roller coaster ride. isn't this what we all wanted to begin with? is it the ride, or the destination? i'm perfectly willing to be greedy, and say "give me both".

That loss was a team effort.

On the bright side, if they would have hit a 3 run homer in the 9th, it would have been sudden and shocking. At least this way we had some time to warm up to the fact that the Cubs might not win the game even before it was over.

on other injury news... from the Astros mlb website:

Oswalt is scheduled to start Thursday vs Pittsburgh (phew). The 'Strohs don't have a day off Monday or Thursday.

Cub killer (especially in Houston)...Wandy Rodriguez is scheduled to make his next start on Friday vs. the Cubs, but it would not be surprising if he is scratched. Cassel is a candidate to start in Rodriguez's place.

The Astros' injury bug spread to the starting rotation on Sunday, when left-hander Wandy Rodriguez left the game after one inning due to a strained right oblique muscle.
It was the same injury that forced Rodriguez from his prior outing, but that one lasted 5 2/3 innings. This time, Rodriguez felt the pain right away, soon after he threw his first pitch to Rockies leadoff hitter Clint Barmes.

"I felt it [while warming up] in the bullpen, but not too much," Rodriguez said. "When I faced the hitters, I tried to throw harder, and I felt it a lot."
--------------
also Ty Wiggington is out 7-10 days sustaining a left groin strain on Saturday

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080906&c...

I blame Soriano for this loss. He failed to hit his requisite 3 home runs.

Man Dempster sucks closing games. We need to make Wood the closer right away so I don't have to watch Chokester anymore.

OK -- ugly loss to a bad team and a horrible starting pitcher, injuries in the rotation and pen, the $48MM RF fix has been exposed by the league and will have to completely re-tool his swing next year, and the Cubs travel to trouble spots St. Louis and Houston this week.

Time to find out if this team has any backbone.

The career of Jon Lieber may be over after he reported arm soreness and was sent home for the rest of the season. Lieber, 38, was 2-3 with a 4.05 ERA, mostly as a starter. He had made only one appearance since going on the disabled list July 18, giving up four runs in two innings Friday night in Cincinnati.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-080907-ke...

Normally a pitching team, Daytona has been pitching and hitting in the playoffs, so the other teams have no chance. Tonight, 9-1 at Fort Myers; yesterday, 5-1. Now Daytona goes home for three games, needing one win for the FSL championship.

In the playoffs against Dunedin and Fort Myers, Darwin Barney is hitting .350, and five other guys--Tony Thomas, James Adduci, Blake Lalli, Steve Clevenger and Jonathan Mota--are hitting better than that.

Jay Jackson pitched tonight and was lights-out, as usual, for five and two-thirds.

I don't see anybody from high-A being called up to the Cubs this month, but there is a lot of young talent on this team.

So, for Halloween this year, will Ronnie Cedeno be Brant Brown or Alex Gonzalez?

Oh, how I loathe Ronny Cedeno. I know his double gave the Cubs the lead, but...I still loathe him.

With Iowa eliminated, will Pie and anybody else be up on Tuesday?

All the races are really close. Aside from the Angels who have a double digit lead, the next biggest lead in a division is the Cubs who are 4 up.