Game Recap
Game 46 Recap: Cubs 2, Astros 4
Cheap Salami
W - Sampson (3-3), cheap homers
L - Dempster (5-2), real homers
S - Valverde (13)
Things to Take from This Game
1. A Lamer Grand Slam Never Was Seen
The entirety of the Astros scoring came in the fourth, when Pence lined an opposite field grand slam home run into the first row in right field. I didn't catch the dimensions, but it couldn't have been 350 feet. It came in response to Aramis hitting a mammoth 2-run home run in the top half of the inning. If style points on home runs counted, the Cubs would have won this game.
2. Dempster, Sampson, Ascanio
If you ignore the grand slam, and the consistently getting behind hitters, Dempster had a pretty decent outing. If you ignore the fact that he won the game, gave up 2 ER in 6.2 and only walked one, Sampson looked very pedestrian. Jose Ascanio also made his debut for the Cubs, and looked ok. One of the two walks was intentional, one of the two hits was a blooper on a nice pitch.
3. Lee and Ramirez play see-saw with Soriano
How's that for a visual aid? A few days after all the talk was about how hot Soriano was while Ramirez and Lee were taking 0-fers, and now Soriano and Theriot go 0-8 while Lee and Ramirez go 5-8.
4. Enron/Minute-Maid/NASA Presents the Houston Astros of Texas Field is still stupid.
Really. It's like Baseball meets the fifth course on Excitebike.
The architectural criticism, game details, and the relentless pursuit of perfection (isn't that an auto slogan?) below...
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Game 44 Recap: Cubs 4, Pirates 3
We Walk
W - Marquis (2-3), .800 homestands
L- Dumatrait (1-2)
S- Wood (10)
Things to Take from This Game
1. More walks than hits
Dumatrait walked 7 in 4.2 innings, with 53 balls and 52 strikes. He only gave up four hits, or else the game wouldn't have been close. Dumatrait walked the bases loaded in the third, leading to a Soriano sac fly and Cedeno bloop single for two runs. Three more walks in the fourth led to a Johnson sac fly, and two walks in the fifth led to a Fukudome single just over Bixler's head, for the final Cubs run.
2. Marquis was just good enough
His pitching line (6IP, 4H, 1 BB, 3K, 3R) looks better than his performance from where I'm sitting. He had a nice strike of seven consecutive outs, but made a couple of mistakes to Paulino that could have been home runs, and had spotty command of the fastball and slider.
3. 3 RBI for LaRoche
LaRoche hit a two run homer in the first that suprised most everyone when it made it into the left-center basket. He added an RBI single in the sixth
4. Solid Relief
Howry, Marmol and Wood provided three scoreless innings.
The 8-2 homestand-closing, warm news for a cold day at Wrigley game recap, and some life-saving, pride-stroking parachat recap shout-outs, below.
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Game 38 Recap: Cubs 12, Padres 3
Juggernaut
W - Zambrano (6-1), singling up the middle
L - Wolf (2-3), the pitiable foes who resist us
Things to Take from This Game
1. Crooked Numbers
The Cubs put up six in the fifth and five in the sixth. For the life of me, I am not sure I've ever seen as many singles up the middle as I saw in this game. The big innings featured a home run, two doubles, five walks and six singles, five of them back up the middle. Len tells us that the Cubs lead the world in innings scoring 5 or more runs, with 13 so far this year.
2. (Sort of) Efficient Z
Zambrano cruised through the first and second innings on 9 pitches each. Even after laboring through the third, he needed just 95 pitches to go seven, before letting the bullpen protect a 9 run lead
3. Soriano heats up.
Soriano followed up yesterday's big game with another. A home run, a double, two RBI and two Runs scored. Welcome back.
4. Kouzmanoff's error
With the bases loaded, two outs and a full count in the sixth, DeRosa grounded one to Kouzmanoff, playing deep at third. Perhaps forgetting that the runners were all moving, he went to step on third for the inning-end force. Ramirez, however, just beat him to the bag. Kouzmanoff then threw wildly to first, and all three runners scored, blowing the game open at 11-2. How many consecutive games can Ramirez influence (for the better) with his feet?
If the recap seems a bit flat, it's because the mlb.tv feed wasn't great. It's also because my mind got the cyber-equivalent of being dropped in a blender with some mango and vanilla soy milk and served as a smoothy, due to reading and recapping nine full innings of parachat. The offensive-juggernaut game details, and a parachat recap that, even after careful editing, might be in violation of the Geneva Conventions, follows....
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Game 35 Recap: Cubs 3, Diamondbacks 1
Pitchers Duel
W - Lilly (3-4), batter's interference calls
L- Haren (4-2), jerks who didn't start Lilly in their fantasy leagues
S - Wood (6)
Things to Take from This Game
1. Lilly Comes Through
Facing the best offense in baseball, one dominated by right-handed hitters, Lilly shut down the Diamondbacks to the tune of three hits, two walks, one earned run on a Chris Young Home Run, and ten strikeouts. He spotted the fastball well, with more velocity as the day went on, and had his harder curve and/or slider working for him. A really remarkable performance for Lilly.
2. Haren's good, not great
Haren also pitched very well. The key moment came in the fifth, when with a runner on second and two outs, he walked Johnson to get to Lilly. Lilly then singled through the middle for an RBI, and Soriano dropped a double in down the left field line. Lee added a home run off of Cruz in the eighth, completing the day's scoring
3. A Dominant Ninth for Wood
Wood threw nine strikes in the ninth, completely overpowering Young, Jackson and Upton. Easily the most dominant I've seen Wood, this year.
The this-is-what-I-get-for-not-being-a-fantasy-baseball-homer details, below.
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Game 34 Recap: Cubs 0, Reds 9
This Ain't Pleasure.
W - Volquez (5-1), Mascots and umpires getting injured in funny ways
L - Lieber (2-2), 3+ hours of my life
Things to Take from This Game
1. The Votto (and many others) Game.
Here is a list of Reds starters who did not hit home runs: Patterson, Griffey, Encarnacion, and the pitcher, Volquez. Joey Votto was the worst at not hitting home runs, as he failed to not hit home runs three times, against three different pitchers, to three different parts of the ball park.
2. Lieber? We barely saw 'er.
Lieber was terrible in his first start of the year. The second inning featured four home runs, to Votto, Dunn (back to back), Bako and Hairston. Just didn't have much in the way of stuff, with spotty command inside of the strike zone. It's not like Marshall or Gallagher were any better in relief
3. Can't Hit Volquez.
Volquez issued four early walks (and a couple late ones), but the Cubs couldn't hit him and he settled in after the first couple innings. Ten K's through seven, no runs, four hits.
4. Dusty, Dusty, Dusty....
What an idiot! Here we have one of the most talented young pitchers in the game, part of our core for the next several years, and with a 9-0 lead, and it's raining, and he's thrown 90-plus pitches, Dusty lets him come out for the seventh? With a rested bullpen? And there isn't even anyone up at the beginning of the inning, in case he struggles? What is he thinking? You're telling me there isn't a reliever who can cover a 9-0 lead for three innings? Of course, the young stud struggles through the inning, is painfully, clearly, visibly tired, and needs pitch number 118 to finally get through the inning??!?!
Oh, wait. Dusty is the Reds' manager, now? Nevermind.
5. Did I mention it rained?
And there was no one at the park, and it was deathly silent. What a wretched game to watch.
The all wet details, below.
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Game 31 Recap: Cubs 3, Cardinals 5
2. Everyone = Hill? The only pitcher on either side to strike out more batters than he walked was Isringhausen, and his strikeout came on a "let's hurry up and get out of here" called strike three on Lee to end the game. Between the double switches and the walks and the Joe Morgan, it was a tough game to follow. Seriously, could Miller and Morgan stopped talking about Australian aboriginal farming techniques just long enough to call the game?
3. No Clutch Hitting The box score shows 23 LOB for the Cubs. Among the more egregious innings were the first (two on, one out, no runs) the fourth (leadoff double doesn't score) and the seventh (bases loaded, one out, one run scores)
4. Soriano Looks Lost Soriano started out his first ABs by going 0-2, 0-1, 0-2, 0-2, and 0-2. Besides two strikeouts, he did get a single and an RBI sac fly out of all that. But still...
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Game 18 Recap: Cubs 13, Pirates 6
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Game 6 Recap: Cubs 3, Astros 2
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Game 5 Recap: Cubs 9, Astros 7
Things to Take from This Game
1. No easy innings
2. The Lees
3. More love for Fukudome
4. Then, there's Soriano...
That je ne se qua of mine that you didn't know you missed until you saw it again, the dinge an sich goodness inherent in a recap, below
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The Makings of a Disaster: A Chronology
BRAVES 6 BAD-NEWS BEARS 5 Recap | Box Score | Play-by-play | Game Chart | Photos W: Mike Remlinger (2-2) L: Ryan Dempster (0-3) S: Kenny Ray (1) |
Recent comments
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
crunch (view)
alzolay...bro...
crunch (view)
wow. what a blown call. go cubs, i guess.