Gameday Open Thread
Game 32 Thread / Cubs @ Reds (1 of 3)
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Game 31 Thread / Cubs @ Cardinals (3 of 3)
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Game 30 Thread / Cubs @ Cardinals (2 of 3)
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SP | *Ted Lilly |
SP |
Kyle Lohse |
1-4, 6.46, 25 K, 13 BB | 3-0, 2.36, 14 K, 8 BB | ||
LF |
Alfonso Soriano | LF |
*Skip Schumaker |
SS |
Ryan Theriot | 2B |
Brendan Ryan |
1B |
Derrek Lee | 1B |
Albert Pujols |
RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome | RF |
Ryan Ludwick |
3B |
Mark DeRosa | 3B |
Troy Glaus |
C |
Geovany Soto | CF |
*Rick Ankiel |
2B |
*Mike Fontenot | C |
Yadier Molina |
CF |
Reed Johnson | P |
Kyle Lohse |
P |
*Ted Lilly |
SS |
#Cesar Izturis |
Breaking News: The Cubs have demoted Rich Hill to AAA Iowa and replaced him on the roster with Sean Gallagher, who will be available to pitch this afternoon in St. Louis.
Of the now departed Hill and his one-inning, four-walk effort last night in St. Louis, Cubs manager Lou Piniella said:
"Hill can't start like this in the big leagues. C'mon. Every time he pitches, it's an adventure. He's doing his best, but we have no bullpen. I don't know what the solution is, but I can't start him anymore until this thing gets taken care of."
About this afternoon's game: With the stink of last night's loss still in the air, the Cubs try to square their series against the Cardinals. The Cards have won three in a row and five of six; the Cubs have lost six of eight. Still, the Cubs have MLB's third-best record, while the Cardinals, who better get to work if they're going to see that 90-loss season so many of us were planning for them, have the game's second-best mark at 19-11. (The D-backs lead the way at 20-9).
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Game 29 Thread / Cubs @ Cardinals (1 of 3)
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SP | *Rich Hill |
SP |
Adam Wainwright |
1-0, 3.79, 14 K, 14 BB | 3-1, 2.79, 28 K, 9 BB | ||
LF |
Alfonso Soriano |
LF |
Brian Barton |
SS |
Ryan Theriot | CF |
*Rick Ankiel |
1B |
Derrek Lee | 1B |
Albert Pujols |
3B |
Aramis Ramirez | 3B |
Trou Glaus |
RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome | RF |
Ryan Ludwick |
2B |
Mark DeRosa | C |
Yadier Molina |
C | Geovany Soto |
SS |
#Cesar Izturis |
CF |
*Felix Pie |
C |
Adam Wainwright |
P | *Rich Hill | 2B | Brendan Ryan |
First place is on the line this weekend in St. Louis, as the rivals battle each other for the first time this year. The Cards expected to struggle, particularly early on in the season while their pitching staff got healthy, are on top of the division. Mostly thanks to a patient offense (lead the NL in walks) and a surprising pitching staff, particularly from Todd Wellemeyer and Kyle Lohse.
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Game 28 Thread / Brewers @ Cubs (3 of 3)
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SP | Yovani Gallardo |
SP |
Carlos Zambrano |
0-0, 0.64, 9 K, 5 BB | 4-1, 2.21, 32 K, 9 BB | ||
2B |
Rickie Weeks | LF |
Alfonso Soriano |
CF |
Mike Cameron | SS |
Ryan Theriot |
LF |
Ryan Braun | 1B |
Derrek Lee |
1B |
*Prince Fielder | 3B |
Aramis Ramirez |
RF |
Corey Hart | RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome |
3B |
Bill Hall | 2B |
Mark DeRosa |
SS |
*Craig Counsell | C |
Geovany Soto |
P |
Yovani Gallardo | CF |
Reed Johnson |
C | Jason Kendall |
P | #Carlos Zambrano |
Fonzie returns to the lineup as the Cubs go for 2-of-3 against the Brewers and try to grab some momentum heading into big road series in Saint Loo and Cincinnati.
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Game 27 Thread / Brewers @ Cubs (2 of 3)
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SP | Jeff Suppan |
SP |
Ryan Dempster |
1-0, 3.48, 11 K, 10 BB | 3-0, 2.90, 21 K, 14 BB | ||
2B |
Rickie Weeks | LF |
Reed Johnson |
CF |
Mike Cameron | SS |
Ryan Theriot |
LF |
Ryan Braun | 1B |
Derrek Lee |
1B |
*Prince Fielder | 3B |
Aramis Ramirez |
RF |
Corey Hart | RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome |
3B |
Bill Hall | 2B |
Mark DeRosa |
SS |
JJ Hardy | C |
Geovany Soto |
P |
Jeff Suppan | CF |
*Felix Pie |
C | Jason Kendall |
P | Ryan Dempster |
The Cubs are one loss from dropping out of first place behind the Cardinals and into a second place tie with the Brewers. A loss would also give the Cubs their first real losing streak of the season (I start counting at three) and they'd lose a second consecutive series to their main competition for the Central crown. So yeah, today would certainly be a nice day for a win.
Dempster will take to the mound to try and help accomplish that and he did start the one lone victory in the opening series. We'lll happily take another six inning, two walk, five strikeout, one earned run performance if you have it in you. He hasn't had a lot of experience versus the members of the current Brewers (possibly the reason for his last success), but do watch out for Jason Kendall who's 13 for 28 versus Dempster for a 464/583/536 line.
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Game 26 Thread / Brewers @ Cubs (1 of 3)
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SP | Ben Sheets |
SP |
Jason Marquis |
3-0, 0.96, 24 K, 4 BB | 1-0, 3.47, 15 K, 9 BB | ||
2B |
Rickie Weeks | LF |
Reed Johnson |
CF |
Mike Cameron | SS |
Ryan Theriot |
LF |
Ryan Braun | 1B |
Derrek Lee |
1B |
*Prince Fielder | 3B |
Aramis Ramirez |
RF |
Corey Hart | RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome |
3B |
Bill Hall | 2B |
Mark DeRosa |
SS |
JJ Hardy | C |
Geovany Soto |
P |
Ben Sheets | CF |
*Felix Pie |
C | Jason Kendall |
P | *Jason Marquis |
No, you're not imagining things--this is the Brewers' second visit to Wrigley Field in the season's first month while the Cubs have yet to visit Milwaukee and won't do so until after the All-Star break.
While the Cubs (16-9) were losing two of three on the road to the Nationals and scoring 10 runs this past weekend, the Brewers (14-11) were dropping two of three at home to the Marlins and scoring six runs. The Brewers, who led the NL in batting with RISP (.303) going into the series, went just 1-for-26 against the Marlins in those same situations.
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Game 25 Thread / Cubs @ Nationals (3 of 3)
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Game 24 Thread / Cubs @ Nationals (2 of 3)
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SP | Carlos Zambrano |
SP |
*Matt Chico |
3-1, 2.67, 27 K, 5 BB | 0-4, 6.04, 17 K, 10 BB | ||
CF |
Reed Johnson |
2B |
#Felipe Lopez |
SS |
Ryan Theriot | SS |
#Cristian Guzman |
1B |
Derrek Lee | 3B |
Ryan Zimmerman |
3B |
Aramis Ramirez | 1B |
*Nick Johnson |
RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome | CF |
Lastings Milledge |
LF |
Mark DeRosa | RF |
Austin Kearns |
C | Geovany Soto |
C |
#Johnny Estrada |
2B |
Ronny Cedeno | LF |
Wily Mo Peña |
P | #Carlos Zambrano | P | *Matt Chico |
And so it falls to Cub ace Carlos Zambrano on this, Hack Wilson's 108th birthday, to reverse the curse:
The Chicago Cubs have never won a game in Washington's Natonals Park. For the love of God, they've never even held a lead!!!
The Chicago offense went hitless in seven AB's with men in scoring position in Friday night's 5-3 defeat. Ryan Theriot, however, was able to extend his National League lead in Caught Stealing.
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Game 23 Thread / Cubs @ Nationals (1 of 3)
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SP | Ryan Dempster |
SP |
*Odalis Perez |
3-0, 3.00, 16K, 11 BB | 0-3, 3.38, 20 K, 12 BB | ||
CF |
Reed Johnson |
2B |
#Felipe Lopez |
SS |
Ryan Theriot | SS |
#Cristian Guzman |
1B |
Derrek Lee | 3B |
Ryan Zimmerman |
3B |
Aramis Ramirez | 1B |
*Nick Johnson |
RF |
*Kosuke Fukudome | CF |
Lastings Milledge |
LF |
Mark DeRosa | C |
#Johnny Estrada |
C | Geovany Soto |
LF |
Wily Mo Peña |
2B |
Ronny Cedeno | RF |
*Rob Mackowiak |
P | Ryan Dempster | P | *Odalis Perez |
WIth tonight's first-ever visit to Nationals Park, the Cubs will have played in three different cities in three different time zones, necessitating somewhere around 2,700 miles in air travel, all in a little over 72 hours. Gotta love those schedule gremlins.
Even with yesteday's loss to the Rockies, the first-place Cubs have won 8 of 10. After opening the season 3-0, the fifth-place Nationals, who needed 13 hits against the Mets on Thursday to raise their team average to .233, have lost 16 of 20.
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Recent comments
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
I think if you had ranked players by how much the team could ill afford to have them miss significant time, Steele would be right at the top of the list.
crunch (view)
steele MRI on friday. counsell expects an IL stint.
no current plans for his rotation replacement.
hellfrozeover (view)
I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1.
crunch (view)
amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.
neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.
Eric S (view)
Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it).
crunch (view)
boo.
crunch (view)
smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.
this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.
crunch (view)
i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things. the default is delay. i would choose brown.
like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.
anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.
Childersb3 (view)
Use pitchers when you believe they're good. Don't plan their clock.
I'm sorry. I'm simply anti-clock/contract management. Play guys when they show real MLB potential talent.
If Brown hadn't been hurt with the Lat Strain he would've gotten the call, and not Wick.
Give him a chance.
But Wesneski probably gets it