Game Twenty-Eight - Cubs 3 Brewers 4
WP - Brian Shouse (2-0) LP - Kerry Wood (2-1, BS 3) Save - Eric Gagne (9)
The Cubs gave one to the Brewers on Thursday afternoon at the old ballpark, plain and simple. Carlos Zambrano was once again very effective on a day he did not have his best stuff. The Cubs' ace held the Brewers to just 1 run, a solo home run by Ryan Braun, on 7 hits with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Zambrano even put the first run of the game on the board for his team in the 3rd inning. Zambrano's opposite field home run was the 13th of his career and tied him with Ferguson Jenkins for the most round trippers by a Cubs' pitcher. Zambrano appeared to be on his way to his 5th win of the year after the Cubs plated 2 runs in the 6th and Carlos Marmol setup the save for Kerry Wood.
For the second time in two games against the Brewers, Wood hit Craig Counsell with his first offering to start the 9th. Gabe Kapler followed with a double over Alfonso Soriano's head on a 1-2 pitch. Soriano badly misplayed the ball and his fear of the wall was on full display. With the tying runs in scoring position, Jason Kendall singled up the middle but Ryan Theriot kept the ball in the infield and preserved the lead. Wood walked Rickie Weeks to load the bases with no outs. Mike Cameron struck out but Ryan Braun doubled to right center to give the Brewers the lead. Weeks was thrown out at the plate for the second out of the inning....but the damage was done and Felix Pie grounded into a 6-4-3 double play in the bottom of the inning to end the game.
Lou Piniella was not happy. After taking out his frustrations on what appeared to be a water cooler. Piniella was visibly upset in his post game press conference. When asked if he thought about moving Reed Johnson to left when Pie came into the game. Piniella replied with, "Your damn right I thought about it. Do you think I'm stupid or something? God darn it."
While it was just the first game in May....it was the toughest loss of the season for Lou Piniella's crew.
The Cubs offense continued to put runner after runner on base and they made the Brewers pitching staff work. While the defense committed two other errors and Ryan Theriot committed one of the Cardinal sins of baseball by making the first out of the inning at 3rd base. The Cubs outplayed the Brewers....except for the one inning.
The Cubs other two runs came in the 6th inning. Ryan Theriot reached on his third hit of the game, a single to right. Derrek Lee reached on an infield single to the hole at short but a weak throw by Craig Counsell got away from Rickie Weeks. Theriot took off for 3rd and was thrown out by Prince Fielder. Lee advanced to 2nd on a head's up base running play.
Aramis Ramirez reached on the first walk issused by Yovani Gallardo. Kosuke Fukudome followed with a swinging bunt down the 3rd base line and the bases were loaded for Mark DeRosa. Lee scored on a sacrifice fly to left by DeRosa that broke the 1-1 tie. Geovany Soto doubled to left on a 0-1 pitch from Gallardo. Ramirez scored easily but Fukudome was called out at the plate. Replays showed Fukudome slid under the tag of Jason Kendall and the home plate umpire was out of position to make the right call. Piniella argued but the out stood and when all was said and done, the Cubs could have used the run.
Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto hooked up on a great play to end the top of the 6th. Bill Hall singled to right and Prince Fielder headed to the plate with what would have been the go ahead run. Fukudome threw a one-hop strike and Soto took the hit from Fielder, held his ground and tagged him out to end the inning.
Alfonso Soriano was 0-for-4 in his return to the lineup...with 3 groundouts to the left side of the infield.
The Cubs do not face the Brewers again until a 4-game series at the end of July. Get ready because the gloves will be off by then....if both teams are still in the thick of the race like most think they will be.
The Cubs open a big 3-game series in St. Louis on Friday night. Rich Hill will face Adam Wainwright in the opener. The Cubs will enter play with an upset manager, hopefully a little ticked off....and a 1/2 game back of the Cardinals.
Frankly, Theriot's out at 3rd shouldn't be that big a deal, and the same with Fuk's later out at home. We had a 1-0 lead, it was the 3rd, and The Riot wasn't like had no chance. He had a close one. Aggressive baserunning is better than reserved baserunning.
When Fuk was caught out at 2nd, he was doing the right move--he had no chance turning back, might as well risk going forward. Earlier in the game, it's always good to challenge the fielders.
I'm not even that concerned with Wood's 3rd career blown-save. He has his stuffs. No control, maybe we can blame this to a slow warmup. Some pitchers adjust their roles slower than others. We have room for an error.
What I 'm more concerned is our lack of a solid 3rd in the rotation. The idea of pulling Dempster--plus stretching Hill/Marquis who are having a bad start of a season--proves to me that GM Hendry had no real solution to strengthen our rotation. He had a chance during the off-season. There was a bunch of third starters (even Kuroda) available. He didn't make a move, and its aftermath might be when we get into June or July, when more opposing bats will get hot.
And somebody mentioned about Teahen and DeJesus. Seriously, if you watched the Royals game (and I did), their lineup has no clue of what "get on base" means.
By the way, Ryne Sandberg will bring his Chiefs to the first minor game ever at Wrigley (7/29). Ticket will be on sale this Friday (I think).
Someone posted last night about purusing Nate McLouth from Pittsburgh. Now that's the catch to get. I'd package Soriano, Pie, and Marquis in a heartbeat there (and eat most of Soriano's brillant contract).
After Lou's postgame tirage, you wonder how long his patience for Soriano runs out.
I don't think we need to press the panic button just yet. It is becoming painfully obvious that our bullpen (other than Marmol) is not going to cut it and needs to be addressed. However, we are only 1/2 game out of first place even with these struggles. We should all just sit back and enjoy the way our team is playing because there have been years where we were 8 to 10 games out of first at this point in the season.
chris
I love The Riot's hustle...but is anyone else worried about his noodle arm? How many close plays at first is Lee going to have to pick this year? Soriano is also really starting to tick me off. I don't care about the batting average, but the lack of effort in the outfield, the stupid company logos on his eye black.......Just Play the Game!!!
Okay, I was just as frustrated with the loss yesterday as everyone else, but let's settle down here.
1. Until somebody, aside from Marmol, starts to perform in the pen, Wood has to be the closer. It doesn't matter who the closer is if the pen can't hold the lead in the middle innings. Marmol will be the closer eventually, but that can only happen when guys like Wuertz and Howry start getting people out. At this pace, Marmol’s arm is going to fall off by the All-Star break. Time to step it up bullpen!
2. Soriano has been a disappointment so far this year and I agree that he should be hitting lower in the lineup. However, he will get better and be huge for us later in the season. We don’t need to run him out of town. He is below average at fielding, but has a cannon for an arm that often makes up for some of his misplays. Be patient, he will be just fine.
In response to the posts yesterday that were saying the Yanks dumped Soriano to let Cano play. The Yankees traded Soriano as part of the deal to get A-Rod. So don't act like they just kicked him to the curb because they thought he hurt the team. They traded a very talented young hitter to acquire the best player in baseball.
That’s my two cents. Now let's go out and kick the snot out of the Cardinals this weekend and bring them back down to reality.
Go Cubbies!!!
sorry that was more in response to yesterday's "Talkin Live" comments.
Go Cubbies!!!
Isn't anyone else amazed and alarmed that Kerry Wood hasn't been dropped from the closer role and Carlos Marmol inserted in that spot!?
After reading the excellent breakdown on Soriano hitting sixth, rather than in the leadoff slot, that was published here on Chicago Cubs Online, and after seeing how Pinella, the front office, or whomever, refuse to tell Soriano to stop "hopping" in the outfield, it seems like the players egos (notably Soriano and Wood) are again running the team like in the bad old Sosa days.
Isn't it time for Lou to take off the kid gloves and to make the moves the team needs to win rather than to coddle a few of the big
salary players?
Posted by: GreenJeff
What should we do: (1)If our recent funk continues, and Soriano and pitching continue to be issues; and (2) Even if we shake our recent funk.
Soriano needs to hit well with power for us to move him. The question at that time would be, "Do we want to move him?" If he performs at a high level, teams like the Dodgers and Yankees might trade with us. The Dodgers have top of the order pitching in the bigs and on-the-way that we could use and a + outfielder too. If he doesn't perform very well, he is our Zito, Giambi, V. Wells etc. (not worth his comp and not tradeable for a top player). Lou will have to bat him 6th and at least show DLee, Aram and Dome that they are our Alpha dogs and the ones we are depending on for big-time production. I think Lee and Aram suffered a little "ego" damage last year and might again if Soriano gets unwarranted attention.
I expect Wood and Wuertz to be good contributors. Kerry is not likely to throw an inside breaking ball again to a .270 part-time player with little power(Counsell) when he can throw a 93-94 mph fastball on the outer half. Wuertz's pitches had excellent movement (including breaks and not bends on his slider) in his last inning pitched.
What we have needed to be an elite team from the beginning is another stud starter and a very capable lefty reliever. I think the Giants and the Cubs can help each other right now. The G's need infield position players badly to replace Vizquel and Durham and they are very deep in quality arms.
Jon Sanchez (L) is more likely tradeable than Cain (R), and Lincecum(R)--but all are 1-2 starters. Sanchez is a power lefty with control and would be exciting starting after Z--with D 3rd and Lilly/Hill 4th. The Giants would still have Zito and Lowry from the left, and they have future top of the order guys like Misch, Sosa, Alderson and Baumgardner on the way.
I would give the Giants their choice of Cedeno or Theriot plus EPat (starting middle infielders) and their choice of Ceda, Castillo or Donaldson. I would like a lefty reliever prospect like the unranked Geno Espineli (25), a converted starter, who has a 1.15 ERA with 1 walk and 13 strikeouts in 15 innings at AAA Fresno. If they want to try Hoffpauir, he goes.
If we get a stud starter, I would package Hill with a prospect and trade for a that "very capable" lefty reliever (he's out there somewhere) and a prospect.
That still leaves trading deadline opportunities and maybe a Marquis deal to someone aching for a 4-5 starter. In the meantime, let's get the Cubs train back on track!!
Jeff, I am with you. I agrtee Wood shouldn't be the closer. How the HELL do you hit someone with the 1st pitch you freaking throw? You're a professional? And you've done the same damn thing before!!! What the hell? And your supposed to be our closer? Then a mis-judged fly ball from LEFT FEILD. Once again....you're a professional? Why the hell was Soriano in after he's been gimp for a while...and in the 9th inning? Versus Milwaukee? Then after we are down a run, you send Sedeno (young kid but did walk, not bad) but then Soto (rookie) Pie (rookie against Gagne? Do we want to win? That loss really pisses me off and I just need time to actaully get it through my head. I just keep hearing right now, in my head, whta I hear and can't stand when I go to St. Louis. They asy, "Typical Cubs!" What the.....