Game Recap
Game 4 Recap: Cubs 3, Brewers 4
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Game 3 Recap: Cubs 11, Astros 6
W - Ted Lilly (1-0)
L - Brian Moehler (0-1)
In the spirit of Passover, we begin tonight's recap by asking, why is this night different from all other nights?
The answer:
Tonight the Cubs sent nine men to the plate in each of the first two innings, building a lead so large, it allowed Ted Lilly to throw his own personal game of Home Run Derby and still win his first game of the season.
Details after the jump.
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Game 2 Recap: Astros 3, Cubs 2 in 10 Innings
Update--more on Soto...
From Wittenmyer's game story in the Sun-Times:
Soto, who said he felt ''discomfort'' on an awkward throw to second...is to be re-examined [Wednesday]. Manager Lou Piniella suggested a possible return during the next series, which opens Friday in Milwaukee. It wasn't considered serious enough to schedule an MRI.
Soto...downplayed the injury. He said he has had similar discomfort before, as recently as this spring.
W - Doug Brocail (1-0)
L - Neil Cotts (0-1)
In the early innings of Tuesday night's game, Pat Hughes and Ron Santo discussed the fact that the Cubs have not started a season 2-0 since Pat and Ron began working together in the WGN radio booth in 1996. Naturally, this had the effect of jinxing the team and thus, the outcome was inevitable.
Game 1 Recap: Cubs 4, Astros 2
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Game 32 Recap: Cubs 2, Astros 0
W - Wood (3-2), History. Fastballs over the outside corner. Generous outside corners.
L - Reynolds (2-3), any losers who didn't see this game live because they were out in the rain and cold shooting a bad round of golf. Trying to come up with an adequate term for that freaky breaking pitch of Wood's.
Things to Take from This Game
1. Wood Strikes Out 20, Two Batters Reach in Complete Game Shutout
From the first few pitches of the game it was clear that Wood had a potentially history-making fastball and breaking stuff working today. Wood K'd his first five,and gave up his only hit on a grounder by Gutierrez off of Orie's glove. This won't make me the most popular guy around here, but yeah, it was a hit. It also was a play that Orie probably makes more often than not. Tough luck for everyone involved. The only other runner came on a curveball that got away from Wood and beaned Biggio. The performance is every bit as dominating as the box score will indicate. Almost without exception, the Astros looked completely helpless.
2. Cubs scratch out 2 runs against Reynolds
Reynolds threw a complete game gem, himself, with 10 Ks and 1 ER in 8 innings. The Cubs' scores came on a Grace "double" in the second, on an incredibly generous ruling where third-baseman Howell got completely devoured by a bouncer. Grace then advanced to third as left-fielder Dave Clark throws away the potential play at second base. Oh Henry! drove him in with a sac fly to Alou in deep center field. They added another for good measure in the eighth; Morandini and Grace singled, with Morandini scoring on an attempted 5-4-3 double play that was too slowly turned and resulted in a fielder's choice.
3. Greatest Game Ever?
A traditional recap can not adequatly contextualize this game. The central question at this moment, just minutes after witnessing this gem, is not "what do we take from this game?" but "where will this game place among the all-time great games ever pitched?" Larson's perfect game came in a far more important context. Haddix's perfect game through 12 innings kept more hitters off base for longer. Clemens has two 20-K games to his record, but as I thumb through the pages of my favorite baseball encyclopedia, I see that Clemens gave up five hits in his 1996 gem, and a run on three hits in 1986. The 1996 Tigers and 1986 Mariners, furthermore, were no 1998 Astros. IS this the greatest game ever? If only we had some sort of pitcher's in-game dominance statistic, and a place that compiled every statistic from every game ever played. Then we might have a more objective idea of where this game ranks on the list of all-time great pitching performances. In the meantime, here's hoping that Wood's career is as successful and distinguished as the Rocket's.
4. Looking to the Future... All the way to the Year... 2000...
This has to portend well for the Cubs. If Wood can stay healthy and anchor a rotation with Trachsel, and another talented young arm like Geremi Gonzalez or Terry Adams or Telemaco emerges as a compliment, we could have a dominant rotation for a decade to come. We just need Wood's health to hold, and though we know he was worked hard in high school, he seems to be a very well built young man, and hopefully can keep his strength up. The Cubs winning a world series may be about as likely as a black president or a second Great Depression, but Wood may have the arm to get us there.
The if-this-is-his-rookie-year, just-imagine-the-things-to-come details, below.
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NLDS Game 2 Recap: Cubs 3, Dodgers 10
Booted
W - Billingsley (1-0)
L - Zambrano (0-1)
Things to Take from This Game
1. Alex Gonzalez Redux
Second inning with Ethier on first, the dodgers put on a hit and run. Loney hits the ball to shortstop. But with Theriot covering the bag, he's out of position, can't make the barehand stop of the chopper. Ruled a hit. Correctly. Two batters later, DeWitt hits a potential inning-ending double-play ball right at DeRosa, but it pops out of his glove, and everyone's safe with a run scoring on the play. Lee makes an error on the next play, a chopper right at him hit by Blake, loading the bases. A Furcal bunt and a Martin bases-clearing double to the left-center Gap, and the Cubs found themselves down 5-0 going into the bottom of the second. A particular shame as Z had looked really focused, sharp, pitching quickly, with an awesome fastball, only to have his defense betray him and then give up a legit double.
- Ramirez also made a lame error a couple innings later. No damage was done, save to our pride.
- And Theriot gives the Cubs infield the Defensive Anti-Cycle, an error by each infielder, when he throws one away in the ninth.
2. Manny Ramirez Redux
Manny hit a gargantuan home run. He's good.
3. Ah, screwit.
Cotts and Marmol struggled, the Cubs got through 2/9ths of a 9-run comeback in the bottom of the ninth, other things probably happened to.
The "we have not yet begun to fight!" "No, really... we haven't yet begun to fight...." details, below.
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NLDS Game 1 Recap: Cubs 2, Dodgers 7
Things to Take from This Game
1. Cubs out to an early lead
2. Dempster's wildness catches up to him
The worrisome details, below...
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Game 153 Recap: Cubs 5, Cardinals 4
Cubs Clinch Division, First Back-to-Back since 1907-1908, Earliest since 1932
W - Lilly (16-9), You, Me, Santo, Harry, 104-year-old-dude-who-threw-out-the-first-pitch, all Cubs fans.
L - Pineiro (6-7), the rest of the NL Central
S - Wood (32)
Things to Take from This Game
1. A bases loaded three-run single for Soriano
Well, two rbis and an error leading to the third run. In the bottom of the second Soriano lined a single right at Brian Barton in left. The ball kicked off his glove and rolled to the wall, clearing the bases. The Cubs raced out to a 3-0 lead.
2. More fielding problems, more runs.
The Cubs got two more runs in the fourth, as Soto began the inning by smashing one through Glaus at third. DeRosa hit a double high off the ivy to score Soto, and after advancing to third on a Fukudome ground out, scored on a nicely executed suicide squeeze by Lilly. 5-0 Cubs through four innings.
3. Glaus homers in 4-run Sixth
Lilly looked great, very economical, through five. In the sixth Felipe Lopez gets an RBI single on a smash up the middle off Theriot's glove, and Glaus unloads a no-doubt three-run home run into the left field well. Suddenly we had a close game. 5-4 through six.
4. Lilly Recovers, Marmol and Wood close it out
Other than a leadoff walk to Glaus in the ninth, the last three innings passed uneventfully as Lilly pitched the seventh, with Marmol and Wood doing their jobs to close out the game. A soft fly out to Edmonds off the bat of Aaron Miles ended the game, and a happy Cubs team celebrated between the pitcher's mound and first base.
The Back-to-Back NL Central Champion Details, below.
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Game 151 Recap: Cubs 7, Brewers 6 (12 Innings)
Game 150 Recap: Cubs 2, Brewers 6
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Recent comments
videographer (view)
Here is an interesting thought: There seems to be an assumption that the Cubs had to trade 2 prospects to get Busch with Almonte thrown in to even out the trade. What if the initial trade was Ferris for Busch, but Hoyer wanted Almonte (a cheap RP) and Hope was the ask from the Dodgers. This scenario makes the trade more complicated to ponder the future ramifications.
Arizona Phil (view)
Zyhir Hope and Reggie Preciado were co-MVPs at Cubs AZ Instructs last fall, and every MLB organization had scouts at the AZ Instructs games so Hope was well-known to everybody (and was clearly a Cubs Top 30 prospect with a bullet).
https://www.thecubreporter.com/cubs-2023-arizona-instructional-league-s…
azbobbop (view)
I can’t speak to how many organizations had newfound interest in Zyhir Hope but I did talk to a Dodger scout who told that the Ddodgers always had their on him.
I hardly think of my self as a “scout” but I saw a beautiful smooth left hand swing, easy power, an aggressive base runner as in very limited action, a good defensive player. He certainly caught my attention, moreso than anyone else on the ACL team last year.
George Altman (view)
Ditto. The can DFA him when they activate Taillon.
crunch (view)
cade horton with his 2024 AA debut of 4ip 4h 0bb 4k, 1r/0er is followed up even better...
4ip 1h 1bb 5K, 0r/er
he's still on a pitch count restriction, btw. he probably could have gone 6+ innings in both outings if he was off a leash.
crunch (view)
okay, officially done with hendricks as a starter.
dunno if counsell is there, but i'm there.
Bill (view)
That pretty well sums up the situation. Epstein, the media and the fans became obsessed with the concept of a "window of opportunity" that had to be taken advantage of before it closed. Thus the trade for Quintana, and the trade of Soler for crap.
The way to deal with a "window of opportunity" is not to sacrifice everything to win, but to extend that window. Epstein knew that he was having his best players, Rizzo, Baez and Bryant in the same year, with Contreras the following year, at the same time that the pitching staff was growing elderly and on the verge of declining. A responsible administration would have moved one of the ""core" two years earlier, and a second one the next year, in order to prevent the otherwise necessity of "tanking" when they left at the same time. they had to know that there was no way they could have all been extended, and still leave room for growth.
Other than the Dodgers and the Yankees, no team can maintain a consistent level of production without a consistent flow of high ceiling, low cost controlled young players coming up from the farm. We have lived through the errors of the past, and hopefully have learned enough from them to prevent a reoccurance of it in a few years.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
I think it was pretty clear that practically all of “the core” was going to be gone after the 2021 season and that utterly gutting the farm system to chase a championship with the same guys year after year until they all departed wasn’t going to end well. That was talked about as early as 2017.
I don’t think it’s hindsight to say they would have been better off from a sustainability standpoint trading some of those pieces for the best prospect packages available and introducing some of the kids. For example, I was hoping real time they would trade Schwarber during the 2016 offseason to an AL team as a DH when the DH was AL only. Fresh off being a WS hero he could have fetched quite a haul. But, alas, he was a member of the vaunted, untouchable “core”.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
What would have surprised me is the Dodgers, who have traditionally been outstanding in evaluating and developing talent, giving away Busch for nothing. They obviously saw something in both of the guys. Perhaps one or both will be future superstars.
That said, the old cliche is that the level of competition increases ten fold for every level moved up. Ferris and Hope both have a long way to go. We’ll just have to wait and see.
For now, I’m watching Busch put the team on his shoulders while the presumed offensive star of the team flails and doesn’t seem to have a plan beyond “waiting for the numbers to even out”.
I thought it was a good and fair trade at the time - a talented but surplus guy for the Dodgers that filled an immediate need for the Cubs in exchange for potential pieces of the Dodgers future - and I’m awfully glad Busch is a Cub.
First.Pitch.120 (view)
Mostly agree, but I don’t think it was as much “unshakeable faith” as it was a series of unclear choices in the moment that have become obvious with hindsight.
The upside outcome for the coming year for any player was always much higher than the return on selling. It was like Texas Hold’em purgatory of having 4 to an A-K led flush… impossible to get away from.