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Game Thirty - Cubs 9 Cardinals 3
WP - Ted Lilly (2-4) LP - Kyle Lohse (3-1) Save - None
After two disappointing losses, the Cubs avoided their first three game losing streak of the season with an impressive win against the Cardinals. The Cubs improved to 11-9 at new Busch Stadium in front of the largest crowd in the park's short three-year history. Ted Lilly did exactly what his team needed after Piniella emptied his bullpen on Friday night. Lilly turned in his third quality start in a row and held the Cardinals to 3 runs on 6 hits with 4 strikeouts and a walk in 7 innings. Lilly allowed only 1 hit in the first 3 innings and put together his best outing of the year. Two of the three runs the Cardinals scored off of Lilly were solo home runs by Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols. Lilly kept the ball down, found a rhythm and most importantly threw strikes. Carlos Marmol tossed two perfect innings, 24 pitches, in relief of Lilly with a strikeout.
The Cubs offense clicked on all cylinders after managing just 1 hit in the first 3 innings and sending only 9 to the plate against Kyle Lohse. Ryan Theriot started the 6-run 4th inning with a 1-out single. Kosuke Fukudome doubled in Theriot with the Cubs' first run. Geovany Soto doubled in a pair and the big hit in the 6th came from Mike Fontenot....a 3-run shot that capped the inning. Fontenot drove in 4 of the Cubs' 9 runs.
Kosuke Fukudome was 3-for-5 with 2 doubles, a run scored and 2 RBI's after going hitless on Friday night. Ted Lilly added his second career extra base hit to start the 3-run 7th inning as everyone Piniella sent to the dish, with the exception of Carlos Marmol, recorded at least one hit. Seven of the twelve Cubs' hits went for extra bases and they showed a lot of patience once again with 7 more walks on the afternoon.
Lou Piniella's crew put on a show and improved to 6 games over .500 with the win.
On a day the Cubs sent a member of their starting rotation back to the minors, Ted Lilly stepped up and turned in a great performance. Lilly was once again the 'Bulldog' and gave the offense time to put runs on the board against Kyle Lohse. Lilly really did not have many stressful innings with 2 of the Cardinals' 3 runs coming off solo home runs. Lilly retired the first 8 batters he faced and set the tone for the entire afternoon.
Aramis Ramirez was not in the starting lineup for the first time this season. Ramirez is listed as day-to-day with a bruised wrist and Pat Hughes mentioned during the game Ramirez could be out for the next few days. With Ramirez out, the entire lineup stepped up their game against a pitcher that had been just short of unhittable at home in the first month of the season.
Kyle Lohse faced the minimum through the first 3 innings. He allowed only an infield single to Kosuke Fukudome but erased the mistake on the next pitch to Mark DeRosa. Loshe retired Alfonso Soriano on a fly out to right to start the 4th....then the Cubs offense got to work.
Ryan Theriot singled to center on a 3-2 pitch. Derrek Lee followed with a great at bat. Lee worked the count to 2-2 after falling behind quickly in the count 0-2. Lee took Lohse's outside pitch into right field, Theriot advanced to 3rd and scored on Kosuke Fukudome's double off the right field wall. Mark DeRosa walked to load the bases. And for the 14th game in a row, the Cubs loaded the bases at least once.
Geovany Soto worked a hitter's count of 2-1 and then took Lohse's next pitch over the head of Rick Ankiel in straight away center. The ball bounced over the wall, the Cardinals got a break but the Cubs took a 3-0 lead. Mike Fontenot stepped in and took a 1-0 pitch over the right field wall. His 3-run shot was the first allowed on the season by Kyle Lohse. Fontenot's second home run of the year gave the Cubs a 6-0 lead.
Reed Johnson blooped a single into right, Lilly sacrificed him to 2nd but Soriano's struggled continued, at that point, as he popped out to right to end the inning....
Lohse settled down and retired 6 of the next 7 batters he faced (a walk to Mike Fontenot with 2 outs in the 6th) and the Cardinals appeared to be mounting a comeback.
With the score 6-3, Ted Lilly led off the 7th with a double to right. Lilly slid head first into the bag and in the process recorded his second career extra base hit. Alfonso Soriano put together a good at bat against Lohse, did not chase a breaking ball in the dirt, and drove in Lilly with a ringing double into the corner in left. Tony La Russa replaced Lohse with Russ Springer and Theriot tapped back to the mound for the 2nd out of the inning.
Derrek Lee walked on 4 pitches and Soriano stole 3rd on ball 4. Kosuke Fukudome followed with a hustle double to left center. Soriano scored easily and Lee advanced to 3rd. When Kosuke hit the ball, it looked like just a routine single to left center but the always hustling Fukudome legged out the double....and appeared to surprise the Cardinals in the process. Geovany Soto walked to load the bases.
Springer walked Mike Fontenot to force in Derrek Lee with the Cubs 9th and final run of the afternoon.
Felix Pie added a single and Soriano walked in the 8th. Mark DeRosa hit a double in the 9th and Soto walked but the Cubs left all 4 runners on base in the last 2 innings.
Lou Piniella's crew put it all together on Saturday afternoon....and hopefully this is a start of a winning streak and not another one game wonder.
Jason Marquis will try to give the Cubs the series win on Sunday night against Todd Wellemeyer. The Cubs have won just 3 times in their last 9 games....but two of three against the Cardinals would be a good way to start the second month of the season.
Trips to the Northside
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A few thoughts....
* Our offense is good, real good. We hit for average,power, steal bases and get on base via the walk. Our pitching, well that is another story.
We have :
Zambrano; So far, looking like an ace.
Lilly; Hopefully, today was the rule not the exception.
Dempster; Nice record and E.R.A. but I keep waiting for him to meltdown.
Leiber; It's about time.
Marquis; For whatever reason we usually score a ton of runs when he pitches and he still struggles to make it into the 5th inning.
* Our bullpen needs another depedable arm.
Good to see that Soriano's offense and speed at the top of the order was contagious, and led to the rest of the lineup producing.
Soriano in leadoff = 9 runs for Cubs offense
Go Cubs!
Very nice win! That was awesome.
One thing though, I believe it was Hubert that stuck up for Soriano on the Talking live, thats great but why diss Theriot and DeRosa? I'm not singling him out because i've read others. What the heck is wrong with people?
Theriot is 6th on the team in average @ .316 and that ranks him 22nd in the entire NL. He also has scored 20 runs which ranks him 4th on the Cubs and in the top 20 in the NL. I shouldn't even defend DeRosa because questioning him in my book is just plain ignorant but he is 21st in the NL in RBI's.
Come on you crazy Cub's fans we could be doing a lot worse!
I was just tooling around and saw that ESPN.com on their MLB rumors is saying that the Padres are tired of Edmond's act and want to get younger...guess who's on their radar...Pie for Greene? That's what they're saying. I'd rather have Theriot!
What was the logic in pitching Marmol 2 innings in this game? ... The guy has pitched 21 innings so far.... 2 innings in a blowout?
That is a travesty..
So should we still trade Soriano??????????
Maybe we should. He hit the game tying homerun friday night but we still lost. and he only hit a rbi double today. 4 rbi's in the last two days. Hell Fontenot got that in one day.
I know I'm being ridiculous but everybody has been doing the same lately.
Instead of talking about how awesome a team we have, everybody is complaining about Soriano. Who is one of our best overall players. Whether he had a bad start or not. I dont like his freeswinging and his little hop etc. etc. either. But if you think he's going to be hitting .169 all year, your crazy.
And dont forget that he led our team in homeruns last year. So dont say he isn't earning his money. Saying that, I agree. Nobody deserve the money he's getting, and if it was between him and Fukodome,I would rather have Fuko. But guess what, we got both, and Lee, and Ramirez, and Derosa.
But he is a every year, all-star player in his prime and it takes a big, out of this world contract to get that type of player. We could of spent it on Zito. He'll lets trade Soriano for him.
But he's human. He's not going to be playing his A game every day. Give the guy a break.
People who are ragging on Soriano are ignorant. Mainly, because they're the same people who will be on his balls the second he starts to heat up with the weather.
Oh and I don't give a damn what Theriot's stats are, they will come down. As a matter of fact, Cedeno is outright pwning Theriot right now.
Ah, nice to see that Hubert is back with his fine comments. He must have ignored many of our requests to take his obnoxious comments and go elsewhere. Bummer.
Great read in the Chicago Sun Times this morning. See Greg Couch's column. It is about the fans of the Cubs. I agree with most of what he has to say. GO CUBS!
Gramps, great find. I had missed his article this morning.
For those of you that did, here is a link:
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/couch/929914,CST-SPT-greg04.article
I agree with dropping "Cubbies" and "Lovable Losers" but I am not sure how Jim will feel about the "Cub Nation" remark. Hence the "Cubs Faithful" moniker this site has been donning for close to 3 years.
And now this from another guy playing in the late innings. Gramps, what's the punch line on Cubs' fans? Some of us can't read.
It's Grade Time--for the third 10 game sequence of our 2008 Cubs' season. CUBS FAIL WITH A 4-6 RECORD. That's one pass, one high pass and one fail in the three 10 game sequences.
We know what we need to do better and who needs to step up. The good news is that, at 18-12, we are still on a path to win 97 games.
The Show-Offs (good performers) include: Dome with 14 hits and Lee, Soto and Theriot with 13. And Cedeno had 8 hits in 17 AB's. Soto shines with 10 RBI's--followed by Rameriz (9) and Fontenot (8). Blanco is second high on the team with a .368 batting average and a .455 OBP. (There's just a little humor in Blanco's excellence.) Z at 1-0 and a 2.11 ERA, D allowing only 8 hits in 13 innings and White Castle with 1 save, 2 hits allowed and 8 strikeouts in 7 innings lead the pitchers.
The No-Shows (poor performers) include Alfonso with 2 hits in 14 AB's and Ward's 1 for 5. Disappointing pitchers include Marquis with 18 hits allowed in 12 innings, Hill's 8 BB's in 6 innings and Hart's 6 hits allowed in 3 innings.
And the sermonette is: "Please Be Careful How You Define Ignorance." Ignorance is not being critical of bad performance or showing elation with excellent performance. Ignorance is thinking and saying...that those who offer earned criticism or praise of players' perfomances are ignorant. The carpenter's advice applies (to remarks) on this site too: "Measure twice, cut once."
Neil:
I coined the word "Cub Nation" back in the mid 1980's. It was during a heated argument with a bridgeport fan. bridgeport has fans but we have a "Nation". That was a byproduct from how Cub fans travel all over the country to see them play.
To me, Cub Nation sounds powerfull. At the convention Brian did correct me and told me to say "Faithfull". Nation, Faithfull are one in the same.
Greg Couch is a cynic putting up "straw men" to knock down--and not a Cubs fan. About his only worth while point is that Cubs fans (or any fans) should not take on suicidal tendencies over one win or loss. But then he does the "one-hand other hand" kind of analysis and commentary that shows he is only slightly involved with (and knowledgeable) about our team.
There is a difference between involvement (Couch) and commitment (the Faithful AND the Nation.) The difference is like a plate of bacon and eggs. The chicken is involved and the pig is committed.
He says that he expects Soriano to mis-play fly balls and Woodie to blow saves, and he says that we and Lou are wrong to get mad about it. That sucks, Greg Couch. He says that Fred Lynn played well before the "demanding" Red Sox fans and poorly before the tepid Angels fans. He says that (our) hyper scrutiny of the Cubs will be exhausting for them, but then says he hasn't seen any exhaustion yet.
He says what we all know--that Marmol is likely our best closer and implys that Lou doesn't know that. He shows lack of understanding that Lou (right or wrong) is trying to get the best 7th, 8th and 9th out of Marmol and Wood--and that sometimes it's as important to close out the other guys in the 8th as it is in the 9th. He makes an unknowing (of spring training) analogy that Hill sucked in spring training and we shouldn't be surprised that he's gone. He doesn't note that Dempster was worse in spring training than Hill and is doing well.
So, agreed that life threatening emotion and angry insults are not good for anyone's well being, and one good or bad game or series doesn't make a season. But there is a Cubs Nation, in the same way the Cowboys became America's team--extensive T.V. coverage that has Cubs fans everywhere. Hooray for the Nation. Committed, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and critical fans are standard fare for energetic, competitive teams. Tepid doesn't work--on or off the field. Couch tried to cover the Cubs scene, but he wasn't close enough to the action to get the picture. He may not understand the game either.
Here is one scouting report for tonight--and you will get none from Couch. Wellemeyer has limited movement on his 92 mph fastball and 80 mph secondary pitch (a slider I think). He tries to pitch low in the strike zone and lower (out of the strike zone). I saw him pitch behind on 13 of the first 16 batters he faced last outing. If the Cubs will let him, he will be forced to come up in the zone where he becomes very hittable.