Drama in Tinseltown....Wood Survives the 9th

By Neil on June 6, 2008 13 Vote 0 Votes

Game Sixty-One - Cubs 5 Dodgers 4
WP - Bobby Howry (2-2, BS 1) LP - Takashi Saito (3-2) Save - Kerry Wood (17)

The Cubs jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on Thursday night. Kosuke Fukudome hit his 4th home run of the year and his first on the road for the game's first run. Aramis Ramirez drove in the second run on a ground out to short and Mark DeRosa hit is 7th home run in the 2-run 4th. Ryan Dempster doubled and scored on a 2-out RBI single by Ryan Theriot.

Dempster was very sharp early on, with a lot of help from his defense. Jim Edmonds turned in two game changing catches but the Dodgers scored a pair in the 5th to cut the Cubs lead to 4-2. Jeff Kent hit the first of two solo home runs in the 6th and tied the game in the 8th off of Bobby Howry.

Ryan Theriot turned in another great performance at the plate, and was the difference in the game. Theriot started the 9th with a double down the right field line and scored on a 1-out single to right by Kosuke Fukudome. With the Cubs up 5-4, Lou Piniella turned the game over to Kerry Wood.

James Loney led off the 8th with a double to left center. Wood struck out Blake DeWitt and retired Chin-lung Hu on a pop out to shallow center....Edmonds made a basket catch running towards the infield for the second out. Wood quickly got ahead of pinch hitter, Terry Tiffee, 1-2 before hitting him on a pitch up and in. Juan Pierre fell behind 0-2 but worked a walk to load the bases. Wood threw two out of the zone to Matt Kemp. Kemp chased ball three and changed the at bat. Wood reached back and struck out Kemp swinging on a 2-2 pitch to end the game for his 17th save of the year....tops in the National League.

Lou Piniella's crew won another close game on the road and improved to 17 games over .500 on the season....they have won 10 of the last 11 and 3 of the first 4 on the road trip.

The Cubs rebounded quite well from Wednesday's loss with a solid win against a very good pitching staff, especially Chad Billingsley. While the offense did their part, the Cubs defense played a big part in the win. Aramis Ramirez, Jim Edmonds, Mark DeRosa and Alfonso Soriano turned in solid games in the field.

The Cubs went in order in the 1st inning and Billingsley retired Aramis Ramirez to start the 2nd. Kosuke Fukudome recorded the Cubs first hit of the game with a solo home run to right....his first long ball on the road. Jim Edmonds followed with a single to center but DeRosa struck out to end the inning.

Chad Billingsley struck out 5 of the first 9 batters he faced and recorded 8 punch-outs in the 5 innings he worked. The Cubs put up impressive offensive numbers against a pitcher that had only allowed 2 earned runs in his last 3 starts.

Alfonso Soriano singled with 1-out in the 3rd inning. Ryan Theriot (3-for-5 with a run scored and a RBI) followed with a single to right. Billingsley walked Derrek Lee to load the bases. Aramis Ramirez was robbed of a single by a great defensive play by Hu on a grounder into the hole at short. Hu threw out Ramirez but Soriano scored on the play. Joe Torre intentionally walked Kosuke Fukudome and Billingsley struck out Geovany Soto to end the inning.

Mark DeRosa hit his 7th long ball of the season with 1-out in the 4th. Ryan Dempster just missed a home run and ended up with his second double of the season. Soriano struck out for the second out. Ryan Theriot recorded his 25th multi hit game with a 2 out RBI single to center....Dempster scored, 4-0 Cubs. On a side note, Chipper Jones leads the NL with 28 multi-hit games and Theriot is tied for second with Lance Berkman with 25 multi-hit games.

The Cubs had opportunities to add to their lead in the middle innings but were unable to come up with the big hit and add those all-important tack on runs.

After the Dodgers tied the game in the bottom of the 8th, Theriot led off the 9th with a double down the right field line. Derrek Lee struck out but Saito hit Aramis Ramirez to put runners on 1st and 2nd for Kosuke Fukudome.

Fukudome put together another impressive at bat. Fukudome fell behind 0-2 to Saito with two swings and misses. He worked the count to 2-2 and on the 8th pitch of the at bat hit a hard grounder into right....Theriot scored, 5-4 Cubs.

Ryan Dempster pitched a very good game....for 4 innings. He allowed only 2 runners (a hit and a walk) until the 5th. Dempster gave up his second hit to Blake DeWitt, a double off the scoreboard in right. Chin-lung Hu followed with a triple to right that plated DeWitt with the Dodgers first run. Mark Sweeney pinch hit for Billingsley and drove in Hu with a single to right. Juan Pierre appeared to bloop a single into shallow center, but Jim Edmonds raced in a made a sensational catch....that changed the inning and possibly the game. Matt Kemp flied out to left for the third out.

Dempster lost his command in the 6th and fell behind all three of the batters he faced. Jeff Kent deposited a 3-1 pitch from Dempster into the stands in left.

Dempster's line.... 3 runs on 5 hits with 2 walks and a strikeout in 5 1/3 innings.

Neal Cotts and Carlos Marmol did an excellent job and Bobby Howry looked very good until his mistake to Jeff Kent.

Not every win can be a pretty one. Not every win can be textbook....but a win is a win and they all count the same. The Cubs offense and defense did their job and in the end....so did Kerry Wood.

Sean Gallagher will make his second career road start on Friday night against Hiroki Kuroda.

13 Comments

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Boseph Heyden | June 6, 2008 8:00 AM | Reply

As soon as they put Howry in with a tie game in the 8th, I said to myself he was going to give up a game-tying-or-worse homerun. And he did. And I always say that to myself and he always does. The thing that shocks me is that Lou keeps putting him into tied games or games with a one run lead in the 8th and expects him not to give up a homerun...he always does. But hey, I'm just shocked they won.

jim | June 6, 2008 8:42 AM | Reply

We need some wins where the back end of the bullpen does not need to enter the game. Some 4-0, 5-1 type wins is needed.

Mark | June 6, 2008 9:12 AM | Reply

You guys are both correct. I am the same way with Howry, EVERRYTIME! We are the best team in baseball, theses wins shouldn't be nail-biters. Even Wood, once again, hitting a guy who has no business being batting in that situation, and then loading up the bases. Com on!!

These Cardinals don't quit, even with the extremely mediocre lineup. We gotta continue to win, but I just hope to God that we can continue to win vs. decent teams.

nick | June 6, 2008 9:45 AM | Reply

The way Dempt was throwing in the earlier innings I thought he might give us a complete game, but obviously that was not the case.

Hopefully Cotts is back to his 2005 form. With the way him and Eyre have been throwing lately, hopefully they will be able to take some of the work load off of the back end of the bullpen.

I would love to see Lou get rid of the 13th pitcher and bring Hoffpaur back up, Lee Desperatly needs a day off. If not send down a pitcher, at least send Fontenot down and bring up Hoff back up. With Theriot, DeRosa, and Cedeno, i really don't see the need for Fontenot right now, (especially if he continues to swing at the first pitch). We need someone who can give Lee a rest everynow and then.

Gramps | June 6, 2008 11:33 AM | Reply

C'mon guys! Both Howry and Fontenot have been instrumental in a couple of wins over the past few weeks. Fontenot had that big double the other day and scored the winning run and Howry has been pitching good for a couple of weeks now. I am happy with the way Piniella manages and if it is good enough for him it is fine with me. WE ARE WINNING! Is everything perfect? No. But what team is perfect? Enjoy this. GO CUBS!

Show | June 6, 2008 11:48 AM | Reply

We could always play DeRosa at 1B and either Ronny or Font at 2B to give Derrek a day off. I don't know if he desperately needs one, though. He's had one within the last week and all the announcers could talk about was how much he hates taking them. He consistently plays 155+ games when healthy -- or not suspended -- and he's 32.

Hoff can't come back up until he's been down for 10 days anyway.

StevenF | June 6, 2008 12:00 PM | Reply

I agree with Nick that Lee needs some time off - whether it's for rest, or added motivation. Lee is human and people are prone to take things for granted over time. Nobody would comlain about throwing Hoffpauir at 1st about twice per month. For now, I'd rather have Hoffpauir than Fontenot on the roster. Also give him some occasional starts in Left and Right.

Additionally, it looks like Soto could use a little more time off as well. Blanco is extremely capable this year to back him up a little more often.

When Pierre had a 3-2 count, I was screaming for a heater down the middle of the plate. It's not like he was going to hit one out, so why not challenge him? Instead he went with the breaking pitch that missed to load the bases. When Kemp had the 3-2 count, Wood took a big risk by trying that fastball down the middle. If he had done it sooner, the dramatics wouldn't have been heart stopping. He took to my idea one batter too late, but still got the desired results. He dodged a bullet. Cubs still win. It worked out this time.

marty | June 6, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply

hey guys relax enjoy the ride you know if they win it all were going to be kicking our selves for not enjoying the games that were fun and exciting and with perfect exucation rather than complaining about howry who gave up a homerun to a future hall of famer thats been kicking our ass for his whole career, and kerry did get the save it wasnt pretty but we won yesterday we lost pretty i would rather win ugly to be honest.