There's Ugly and Then There's Cub-Ugly: Mets 6, Cubs 1
Here's the ugly box score, and here are some details...
The good: Randy Wells allowed just one scratch run over six innings, yielding six singles and a couple walks while fanning five. At the plate, Wells delivered two singles of his own, one of which figured in the mini rally that netted the Cubs' only run of the game. Also, Marlon Byrd, moved up to the leadoff spot in Lou Piniella's new-look batting order against southpaws, collected three hits and the only Chicago RBI of the night.
The bad: Where to begin?
Cub hitters went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and blew a chance to salt the game away before it would have ever had a chance to get away. The 5th inning was especially galling, as the Cubs had men at first and third with Lee, Nady, and Ramirez due up and failed to score. (Ramirez, by the way, went 0-for-4, personally stranded four runners, and is now hitting .157.) In all, the Cubs left 12 men on base.
And of course no Cub fail in 2010 would be complete without some imprint from the bullpen. In tonight's installment, the relief staff took over the game from Wells in the seventh and promptly allowed the Mets five runs, their biggest offensive inning of the season.
James Russell, unscored upon before tonight, served up a two-run, go-ahead homer to Angel Pagan; Jeff Samardzija allowed a walk, a double off the base of the left-field wall by Jason Bay, and a smash by Jeff Francouer that resulted in an error by Aramis Ramirez; and even Sean Marshall got into the act by allowing a run-scoring single to heralded Mets rookie Ike Davis and tossing a wild pitch that accounted for the fifth and final Mets run in the inning.
Lastly, I heard the radio account of, but did not see, Alfonso Soriano's second-inning double. Pat Hughes and Keith Moreland (especially Moreland) were unequivocal in saying that the only reason Soriano didn't end up with a triple on the play was that he lingered at home plate to admire what he assumed was a home run.
I guess as infrequently as Soriano hits the long ball these days, he must figure he needs to get in the self-admiration whenever he can.
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