Game Twenty-Three: Cubs (15-7) vs. Nationals (7-16)
Game Time - 6:35pm C.T.
Coverage - TV: Comcast SportsNet - Radio: 720 WGN, XM Radio Channel 185
Location - Nationals Park, Washington D.C.
Ryan Dempster (3-0, 3.00/1.04) vs. Odalis Perez (0-3, 3.38/1.54)
Lou Piniella's crew opens their first series tonight behind Ryan Dempster at new Nationals Park. The Cubs are coming off their worst offensive game in a week and must get the bats going tonight against Odalis Perez. The Nationals own the worst record in the National League after starting the season 3-0....but the Cubs must not take this team lightly. Piniella's top 3 pitchers are scheduled to start the weekend series and a 4-1 road trip would be a great way to spend Monday's off day.
Ryan Dempster is coming off a decent start against the Pirates last Sunday. Dempster was in cruise control until the 5th inning and barely escaped with the win. Piniella showed a lot of confidence in Dempster by leaving him in and letting him pitch his way of the jam. The Cubs won the game 13-6.
Dempster needs to put together a quality start tonight. The Cubs bullpen has been over worked in the first month of the season and Dempster has pitched past the 6th inning only once this year. Dempster has been better than most expected in his return to the rotation....and hopefully the 5th inning last Sunday was just a blip.
While Dempster's results have been very good (3-0, Cubs 4-0 in games he's started) he must cut down on the walks and improve his strikeout to walk ratio. In 24 innings this season....11 walks and 16 strikeouts.
Dempster is 6-0 in 18 career games, 10 starts, with 2 saves against the Nationals' franchise....a 3.40 ERA and a 1.20 WHIP.
- Austin Kearns - 2-for-12 with a double
- Johnny Estrada - 3-for-7
- Ryan Zimmerman - 1-for-4
- Ronnie Belliard - 4-for-18 with a double and 5 walks
- Felipe Lopez - 3-for-14 with a double and a home run
- Rob Mackowiak - 3-for-10 with 4 walks
Odalis Perez has pitched much better than his record indicates. He has allowed more than 2 earned runs once in 4 starts and is coming off a very good outing against the Florida Marlins. Perez held the high-flying Marlins' offense to 1 run, unearned, on 5 hits in 6 innings with 7 strikeouts and 3 walks. Take away his horrible start against the Cardinals on April 4th (5 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings) and it could be said Perez has been just about spectacular for a not-so-good team.
Perez has lost only once in 4 career starts against the Cubs (3-1) with a 3.54 ERA and a remarkable 0.93 WHIP....while holding them to a .208 batting average. The last time he faced the Cubs was 2004 when he pitched for the Dodgers.
- Mark DeRosa - 2-for-5 with a double
- Reed Johnson - 5-for-8
- Derrek Lee - 2-for-8 with a double
- Aramis Ramirez - 4-for-9 with 2 home runs
From the History Book....
On this date in 1876, the Chicago National League Ball Club played and won their first game 4-0 over Louisville. Albert Spalding tossed the first shutout in National League history to earn the win.
Let's Talk Cubs Baseball....
I'm excited!!!going to the ballpark wearing my Fuku stuff!...Go Cubs
ALSO... on this day 32 years ago Rick Monday prevented to protestors from lighting fire to the American flag.
Rick Monday... You made a great play!
God Bless America!
Let's go Cubbies.
I should have noted in case anybody does not know about this patriotic move by Monday...
He was a Cubbie at the time.
The crowd erupted into God Bless America in unison after this occurrence.
When Monday was up to bat the following half inning the scoreboard read "Rick Monday... You just made a great play".
Cliff...great memory and thanks for reminding us all.
Tonight's lineup:
Johnson - CF
Theriot - SS
Lee - 1B
Ramirez - 3B
Fukudome - RF
DeRosa - LF
Soto - C
Cedeno - 2B
Dempster - P
Who would've thought the day would come when I check the lineup just to make sure Ronny Cedeno is in it?
Cliff: I remember that, Nice post!
Augustin: Have fun !!!!!!!!!!!
Neil: I'm a little surprised that Wuertz is still with the club, he reallys needs to get better and soon.
Wuertz has been solid since the day he came up years ago.
He deserves a little bit of time to figure it out. But time is running out. Get it together buddy!
Go Cubs!!!
Agustin...I hope you have a great time.
Jim, I agree with you on Wuertz. I kept expecting to hear/see something today.
Also, someone brought up Billy Petrick earlier today. He was in extended spring training and I have not seen where he has been assigned yet.
i never feel comfortable facing a team with cubs-killer Mackoviak in the starting lineup.
Dempster is all over the place
R.D. needs to settle down and throw strikes. Two runs allowed is O.K. if he does. We should get 4 or 5 against Perez.
Perez is on his game. Cubs gotta focus.
Theriot with a great hit and then a bonehead play. Why do you do that with Lee at the plate?
That steal was largely unnecessary with D-Lee at the plate..
NOW the double steal would be a good idea with a contact hitter at the plate -_-;
R.D. still not sharp. R.J gets hbp and R.T.'s double gets us back to 1 down. Ah speed! Oops Riot out stealing with Lee at bat--not enough speed and not smart.
Great hustle by Aramis....I do not think I have ever seen him slide head first into first base.
Bad move Theriot, with the big guns up. Perez got shaky with men on base. Lets put some more on.
Demp's velocity is up about 3mph on his fastball Oo;;
Hopefully by June it is back up to 94-95..
Great inning by Demp. We should be O.K. now.
The Cubs can take away Perez's slider and cutter by humping the inside corner of the plate and just get hit by crap like Reed Johnson does -_-;;
Wasted the leadoff walk
i think i am going to have to start using my screen name "cliff (soto's #1 fan)" again...
This guy has all the tools. What a great product of a typically poor farm system.
Cliff, that was a very good throw by Soto
I hate this ballpark so much -_-;
DeRosa is 0-for his last 8
i would really like to flip flop derosa and soto...
JOHNSON JUST HEADBUTTED THE WALL! AMAZING!
OMG!?!?!?!?!
RJ is a stud! That was one of the best catches I have ever seen. I would have loved to hear Santo's call on it.
WOW!
WOW!!! Can anyone say number 1 web gem? Great Catch by Reed Johnson!!!!!!!! DeRosa was stunned
That was just incredible!!! I cannot get over that catch. Cliff I am with you, one of the best I have ever seen. That will be in highlight reels for a long, long time.
If we lose by 1 I'm gonna have to crush Theriot..
However, RJ is playing his arse off, and he's doing what leadoff guys are supposed to do, get on no matter what, which includes basically standing over the plate and getting hit.
O.K. Time for the Cubs bats to pick up Dempster. We should get a couple more runs tonight.
I know that runners are supposed to go on 3-2 counts but with the middle of the lineup and down by 1, that was a bad call.
i am going to go on record before the AB that i don't like it...
i am going to go on record before the AB that i don't like it...
Cliff, for the record....I agreed. But the result was good.
Let's try that again...I agreed with you. I did not like the move.
Very disappointing, bases loaded 1 out.
3-3. Not much execution by the team tonight. But with Marmol coming on, our chances are good. I think Lou didn't execute well either. His bench is pretty much gone.
...piss off..
It looks like the Nationals didn't read our press clippings--and we did. That was a disappointing loss on several fronts.
ugh.
wow.....Howry really sucks my ass!!!!!!! so does Theriot for blowing the game with two caught stealings with less than 2 outs, and being in scoring position....what a waste of an effort by Dempster...Yeah, he was a little wild, but still, 7 innings, 3 runs ain't bad at all. I don't think this team can wait for Howry and Wuertz to turn it on when if they don't, we're using Wood, Marmol, Hart, and Marshall all the damn time...and Hart is a long man with Lieber, so really, you only have Wood, Marmol, and Marshall to count on everyday
DAMN IT Howry!!! Get your head out of your ass, keep the ball low.....especially fastballs. Waste pitches are harder to hit when they're inside, not out over the plate. The guy before slammed one right down the middle, keep it low or bust him inside. Dempster pitched fine, to keep us in the ballgame, we were just a long fly ball out from the win. DAMN IT!
Just got back from Nationals Stadium. Hubert the stadium is really neat. A few thoughts...
1-Aramis wants it bad, I mean really bad.
2-What a play by R.J...one more step closer to the wall and F.Pie would have been in CF for the rest of the season.
3-Theriot is trying to do more than his abilities allow him to. He can hear R.C. breathing down his neck or something.
4-Howry has to work on a get out pitch and I mean a S.O. pitch not a contact one with CERO movement.
5-Who the hell is NIEVES? He took a very high/outside pitch the other way for a Walk off.
6-I'm jinxed...last series I saw was last year against the Marlins and now this? If we loose tomorrow I won't go on Sunday to make sure.
7-Today I missed Soriano.