Game Forty-Eight: Cubs (28-19) vs. Pirates (22-25)
Game Time - 6:05pm C.T.
Coverage - TV: Comcast SportsNet - Radio: 720 WGN, XM Radio Channel 187
Location - PNC Park, Pittsburgh
Carlos Zambrano (6-1, 2.45/1.20) vs. Zach Duke (2-2, 4.23/1.59)
The Cubs return to action tonight in search of their first win since Monday. Lou Piniella's crew lost the last two in Houston and will try to avoid their first 3-game losing streak of the season. The Cubs must figure out how to win games on the road. At home they are looking, and playing, like an entirely different team. The Cubs are 19-8 and have made Wrigley a home field advantage. On the road this season, is a different story. The Cubs are 2 games under .500 at 9-11 and have won only one series on the road this year....in Pittsburgh on their first series of the year away from Wrigley (April 7, April 9-10)
Tonight will be a rematch of last Saturday's contest at the Friendly Confines. Carlos Zambrano will hopefully keep his bat intact, retire a bunch of Pirates, throw a lot of innings....and most importantly, beat Zach Duke.
Carlos Zambrano is coming off his worst start of the season last Saturday against the Pirates. The Cubs offense gave him an early lead. Then Big Z struck out, broke his bat over his knee.... and then lost it on the mound. Zambrano could not make it out of the 5th inning and gave up 5 runs, 4 earned, on 7 hits in 4+ with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. It was Zambrano's shortest start of the year....but it could end up benefiting his team tonight.
Reports surfaced early in the week that Zambrano had stiffness in his right shoulder, both Zambrano and Lou Piniella denied there was a problem....and Zambrano said he would prove it on Friday night. If Zambrano can control his emotions, it could be a special night....but most importantly his team could pick up a much-needed win.
Zambrano has not been as sharp against the Pirates over the past year and a half as he should have been. Zambrano is 9-6 in 21 career games, 19 starts, against the Pirates with a 4.01 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP.
While the Cubs have struggled on the road this season, Zambrano has pitched better on the road than at Wrigley. Big Z is 2-1 in his first 3 road starts with a 2.14 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP with victories against the Nationals and Reds. Zambrano is 5-1 in 10 career starts, 11 games, at PNC with a 3.90 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP....his only loss came last season in the final game of the first half.
- Jose Bautista - 1-for-13 with a double
- Jason Bay - 12-for-36 with 4 doubles. 5 home runs and 8 walks
- Adam LaRoche - 5-for-22 with a double
- Nate McLouth - 4-for-13 with a double
- Xavier Nady - 8-for-22 with 5 doubles
- Ronny Paulino - 1-for-16
- Freddy Sanchez - 6-for-29 with a double
The Cubs will get their second look in a week at Zach Duke....and this is not necessarily a good thing. Zach Duke is back and he is making the Cubs look bad at the plate. Tonight will already be the fourth time the Cubs have faced Duke this season....0-1 in 3 games with a 5.19 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP. The Cubs offense has walked only 4 times in 17 1/3 innings and have hit a robust .338 against Duke....but they have only scored 10 runs.
While the numbers look good, take away one bad start on April 20th at Wrigley (5 runs on 8 hits in 4 innings), Duke has held the Cubs to 5 runs on 13 1/3 innings on 16 hits....a 3.38 ERA. Duke is 4-3 in 11 career starts against the Cubs with a 2.84 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP.
Duke is 2-1 in his first 4 starts at PNC this season with a 3.42 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP.
With such a large sample size....here is how the Cubs have hit Duke this season.
- Ronny Cedeno - 1-for-5
- Mark DeRosa - 4-for-9 with a double
- Kosuke Fukudome - 1-for-6
- Reed Johnson - 4-for-8 with a double
- Derrek Lee - 1-for-9
- Aramis Ramirez - 2-for-8 with 2 doubles
- Alfonso Soriano - 5-for-7 with a home run
- Geovany Soto - 2-for-6 with a double
- Ryan Theriot - 4-for-6 with 2 doubles
The Cubs must make Zach Duke work tonight. If they swing at a lot of first pitches, they will play right into the hands of the talented southpaw....especially when runners are on base.
Let's Talk Cubs Baseball....
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David knows they won the series at Pittsburgh last time, but it wasn't easy...two of the 3 games went into extra innings. I hope our pitchers can keep the HRs to a minimum.
Go get 'em Cubs!
Losing two in a row followed by an offday makes the offday seem extra longer.
Matt's confident that MSZ is gonna own tonight.
Matt would also like to see more of the Theriot/Kosuke 1/2 punch. Wont happen though..
When Soriano is streaking, he can hit anywhere in the lineup Matt'd imagine.
Tonight's lineup:
Soriano - LF
Theriot - SS
Lee - 1B
Ramirez - 3B
Soto - C
Cedeno - 2B
DeRosa - RF
Johnson - CF
Zambrano - P
Austin likes that Lou is giving Fukudome a day off, he likes it even more that Edmonds is not in the lineup. Go get 'em Big Z!!
It would've been cool to see Hoffpauir in the line up but I get it Lou wants all righty's
It would have been cool to see the Hoff-Power, but Lou rightfully doesnt want to set him up to fail.
Good day to get Kosuke a day off indeed. Hes had a rough go of it against lefties and on the road.
Another early lead.
Lets keep this one!
Good first two. Please keep this up.
Gotta love the two out RBI's!
Uh oh for the Pirates...Z is bringing it in the mid-90's w/ that fastball..and he's mixing in the 2-seamer and cutter..
Neil likes the 2-out RBI's as well.
Apparently he brought his big bat as well Oo;
D-Lee for the love of God avoid the DP...
That'll do.
Okay, quick question....what is everyone's opinion on the no tag from Soriano? Right play? Wrong play?
Bay should be at 2nd....not 3rd.
Neil, I'm watching Gameday....could someone fill me in on the "no tag" thing you mentioned?
Soriano was at 3rd. Ramirez hit a medium depth fly ball to right. Soriano did not go back and tag, much less run.
REED JOHNSON!!! 3-run shot....
Soriano is hurting...he looked horrible out of the box.
LOL, hopefully we save some of these runs for the other games.
WOW, McLouth with the 2-out triple....
The longest losing streak of the season is two, right?
Thats gotta be the most incredible stat of them all.
Soriano worries Matt. Matt expected more from Alf's legs after two days of rest.
It makes Matt worry that the Alfonso Soriano contract would become the second coming of the Griffey Jr Cincinatti contract.
If the Cubs sign Ryan Theriot for G4's Ninja Warrior, he will triple in strength, agility, speed, and size LOL.
Neil shares Matt's concern with Soriano's legs.
Matt, the Cubs have not lost 3 games in a row all season.
Z is 4-for-5 with hits and RBI's from both sides of the plate. Third game this season Zambrano recorded hits from both sides of the plate. AmaZZZZing!!
Z is joking right...Oo;
The more games I watch, the more firmly convinced I am that Jim Edmonds has no place on this team. You couldn't give me one good reason to not cut him right now. Make tonight's lineup the righty-laden one against a lefty that's hard on LH hitters and put Fuku in CF and Hoff in RF if you have a righty pitching that's overly tough on righty hitters.
We don't need this guy, and my skin crawls everytime I see him wearing our uniform.
My one recommendation to Lou about the normal lineup is that he should bring Fuku and his patience/OBP up to the number 2 spot and drop Theriot to 8 to get some people on base in front of Soriano.
NATION REPRESENT!
CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!
Agree Hubert. Things especially work well for Sori when Big Z is pitching...then he's in an RBI spot at leadoff!
Theriot is doing well, however, Fuku has a better eye, higher OBP, and higher SLG. Besides, Theriot at his pace does get on base quite often, so he can do that in front of Sori, not Lee. Mainly because Theriot has a penchant for getting caught stealing during D-Lee's ABs.
Hubert, will you please stop dissing on Theriot already. It's getting really old.
Hubert,
Did you ever think that the opposing pitcher may throw more fastballs to Lee when Theriot, who leads the team with stolen bases, is on first? If Piniella thinks Theriot should hit ahead of Lee is good enough reason for me. Sure, he has been thrown out quite a bit but there is much more to it than that. I agree with Rich, Theriot is doing what the team needs him to do, so leave him alone already. GO CUBS!
Goddamnit Rich, its not dissing Theriot, it is putting putting people in places within the order where they can maximize their strengths.
It isn't a necessity for someone to be a base stealer in the two hole. It is normally the place for someone with a patient eye and an on-base machine. Fuku sees the MOST pitches PER AB on the team, and as correlation suggests, has a HIGHER OBP than Theriot. The fact that he has a higher SLG AND has gap to gap doubles power, means he can get INSTANTLY into scoring position WITHOUT risking the stolen base.
Fuku would get on base in front of Lee more often than Riot, and in scoring position more often..
The fact that Theriot needs to gamble on the SB means that there will be other issues in D-Lee's mind than driving the ball.
Gramps, the pitcher will throw fastballs to Lee if Fuku is on second via a double now won't he...as well to counter your point.
Theriot is doing well, but the reality is his opening base position when he gets on will be the result of a slap single most of the time. He makes some rash decisions at the plate and on the basepaths sometimes. That's great that Riot leads the team with 9 SB's, he has been CS 7 TIMES. 50-50 shot basically on the steal.
If everyone is so mad about Sori batting leadoff because most of his shots are solo, get some OBP people in front of him AS WELL AS Lee and Rami. Theriot getting on base at a .398 clip would easily put Sori in RBI positions for some multi-run HR opportunities. Also, because of the pitcher batting, you can live with the option of gambling with the SB moreso than you can when you are a runner on base in front of the 3-4-5 hitters.
God...-_-; If you actually thought about the reasoning for two damn seconds instead of automatically assuming I'm saying "Theriot sucks" you could actually show some sort of comprehension for the game, Rich.