Game Thirty-Four - Cubs 8 Royals 8 - 10 innings
For the first time this spring Lou Piniella's crew did not win or lose on Monday afternoon, the game was called after 10 innings with the Cubs and Royals tied at eight. Rich Harden made his third start of the spring and gave up only four hits...but three of them were home runs that accounted for four of the five runs he allowed in 4 2/3 innings.
Alex Gordon hit a pair of dingers off Harden and Mark Teahen added one to lead off the fourth. Rich Harden, for the most part, pitched a good game, but was inconsistent...as his line would indicate. Harden gave up five runs on four hits with two walks and four strikeouts on Monday.
Aaron Heilman struck out the only batter he faced in relief of Rich Harden. Heilman threw four pitches to Mark Teahen.
Carlos Marmol responded to not being named the team's closer with his best outing of the spring. Marmol was his old nasty self. He retired the Royals in order in the sixth with two strikeouts...Mike Jacobs and Billy Butler swinging. Marmol threw eight pitches, all strikes.
Angel Guzman, Jeff Samardzija and Kosuke Fukudome allowed three runs in the bottom of the eighth. After Samardzija allowed the go ahead run to score, Fukudome called off Reed Johnson in right center then dropped the ball. Fukudome's error cost the Cubs two runs.
Kosuke Fukudome made up for his error in the top of the ninth. He hit his first home run of the spring, a 2-run shot off of Joakim Soria that cut the Royals lead to 8-7...it was the first two runs of the spring allowed by the Royals closer.
Milton Bradley put together a perfect day at the plate and his double of the ninth led to the tying run. Bradley finished 4-for-4 with a walk and a run scored in five trips. This just in...Milton Bradley can hit.
Micah Hoffpauir added to his Major League leading RBI total with a 2-out, 2-run single in the fifth that tied the game at three.
The Cubs knocked another game off the exhibition schedule and have only three left in Arizona...
Here are a few of the notable highlights...as well as the lowlights from Monday:
Highlights
- Rich Harden retired the Royals in order with two strikeouts, both looking in the first inning.
- Aramis Ramirez doubled in the fourth that led to the Cubs' first run on a sacrifice fly by Mike Fontenot.
- Koyie Hill was 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored on the day he found out he would serve as Geovany Soto's backup.
- Micah Hoffpauir picked up Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome with a 2-out, 2-run single to right in the fifth.
- Aaron Heilman replaced Harden with two on and two out in the fifth and struck out the only batter he faced on four pitches.
- Aaron Miles hit his first home run of the spring. A 2-run shot to right in the sixth that tied the game.
- Carlos Marmol was Senor Nasty for the first time this spring.
- Angel Guzman threw a very good first inning of relief and allowed only one hit in the seventh.
- Jason Waddell made the trip with the big league team. Lou Piniella brought him in to face Mike Jacobs. The southpaw threw one pitch to the left-handed batter with runners on first and third and only one out...Jacobs popped out to Aaron Miles at short.
- Kosuke Fukudome, after a horrible day at the plate and not hitting the ball out of the infield, hit his first home run of the spring...a no-doubter off one of the best closers in the American League. Could this be the moment that puts Fukudome back on track?
- Cubs pitchers struck out 13 batters on Monday.
Lowlights
- Rich Harden's first seven pitches in the second inning were balls. The four-pitch walk to Jose Guillen led to the Royals first run.
- Angel Guzman allowed two runs, one earned, on two hits in 1/3 of an inning in the eighth.
- Kosuke Fukudome dropped a routine fly ball in the bottom of the eighth. Fukudome appeared to call off Reed Johnson. The ball went in and out of Fukudome's glove. The error cost the Cubs two runs.
The Cubs will play host to the Angels on Tuesday afternoon. Sean Marshall is scheduled to face Nick Adenhart.
Harden's implosion worries me. He's sitting mostly in the 90-92 mph range lately, and he's not Maddux. He elevates his pitches quite frequently, and we saw that today. I'm just not too confident in him or our pen.
Gregg, Marmol, and Heilman don't worry me, but EVERYONE else does. Think about that for a second...
Cotts-getting lit up lately in ST, and the past 2 seasons
Vizcaino-do I even need to say why?
Gaudin-ditto
Guzman-ditto
Samardzija-is it because he's working on pitches, or is this a sign of things (negative) to come?
Patton-never pitched above A ball, and has mostly faced team's minor league players this spring
I mean, that's what we have to choose from right now. We have a 37 man roster. Don't kid yourself, Hendry's dumb...but he ain't thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat dumb...or is he?
I smell a trade coming on, and it will be to address the CF situation (namely shuttling Fukudome out of here for an equally less attractive contract--ie.-Vernon Wells or Gary Matthews Jr.), and the pen. Gaudin and maybe Guzman have potentially punched their tickets out of town. If it were my choice, I'd trade/release Gaudin, and give the last 2 spots to Guzman or Patton if I couldn't find a better trade option.
Right now, we have decent trade chips like: Jake Fox, W. Castillo (though I prefer to hand onto him), Atkins, Caridad, Fuld, Ascanio, etc. and we can parlay some of them for decent bullpen help.
Aaron...Samardzija performs better under pressure, don't worry about him. I don't think his performance this spring is a sign of bad things to come.
Harden, concerning, but it was windy today and the thin air in Arizona does not fit him. Harden will give up his share of longballs.
Patton, he has faced more major leaguers of late and he impressed the (blank) out of me when I saw him in Mesa at the beginning of Spring Training.
He had an absolutely horrible warm-up session in the pen. Could not hit the mit for anything..one ball even skipped over the fence and ended up in right center, Joey Gathright gave the ball to a kid.
You know where I sit at HoHoKam, and I watched the whole thing. When they put him in I was expecting nothing but the worst.
Patton was lights out.
He retired the White Sox in order that day on nine pitches, seven for strikes and took the mound for the sixth.
He struck out Jim Thome (granted just the fourth spring training game), allowed a single to Jermaine Dye and struck out the Cuban Missle on a curve ball in the dirt that was beautiful.
I told him when he ran in the outfield he had a great outing and I meant it.
Also, the Cubs 40-man is down to 36 after the release of Bako.
One last thing...Sarge, Jr? Please. What has he done beside have a career year the season before he wanted to get paid. I would rather have a 'dirtbag' like Reed Johnson in center everyday than him. Johnson will give his all and play hurt.
As someone said earlier, been down the Matthews, Jr. road and that did not work out too well.
Micah Hoffpauir. interesting case here...
arguably the best cubs farm talent to come around in a while... yet despite his prolific hitting, has a ~.330 OBP(read Juan Pierre Territory!!) and 5 walks in ~90 at bats....which would translate to about 25-30 on a full season.. which is quite poor for a slugger