Game One Hundred-Fifteen - Cubs 3 Pirates 1
WP - Tom Gorzelanny (5-2) LP - Zach Duke (9-11) Save - Kevin Gregg (23)
Tom Gorzelanny improved to 2-1 in a Cubs' uniform with a solid outing against his former team. Gorzelanny qualified for the win but left after five innings. Lou Piniella indicated Gorzelanny was not able to get his work in during the week due to the injury he suffered in Colorado and they wanted to shorten him up. Gorzelanny threw the ball well, except for one inning and the Pirates offense took advantage of two walks and a Gorzelanny miscue. The former Pirate gave up just one run on three hits in five innings with three walks and eight strikeouts.
Tom Gorzelanny even got into the act offensively. While Zach Duke kept the Cubs in check most of the afternoon he could not retire his former staff mate in the second inning. Gorzelanny lined Duke's first pitch into center with two outs in the bottom of the second. Gorzelanny's second RBI as a Cub plated Geovany Soto.
Jeff Baker drove in a pair of runs hitting out of the fifth spot in Lou Piniella's lineup. Baker came through with a two-out single in the first after a controversial call allowed him to bat with runners on second and third. Baker then gave the Cubs a little breathing room in the sixth with a solo home run to left center. Baker's second longball as a Cub gave his team a 3-1 lead. Baker also made a fine defensive play covering first on a bunt attempt by Zach Duke in the fifth. Baker stopped Gorzelanny's throw from going down the right field line and allowing at least one run to score.
Aramis Ramirez made his first appearance in a week in the eighth inning. Ramirez single to left center, the Cubs ninth hit off of Zach Duke. Ramirez is expected back in the starting lineup on Sunday afternoon.
The Cubs' pen, led by Angel Guzman, worked four innings of scoreless ball in relief of Tom Gorzelanny. Guzman was dominant. He retired the side in the sixth on just nine pitches and worked around Jake Fox's error in the seventh. Guzman struck out a pair and did not walk a batter. He threw 24 pitches, 18 for strikes and should be available on Sunday if needed.
Carlos Marmol was better than he was in the series against the Phillies. He threw strikes and worked around a bloop single to right center by Garrett Jones. Marmol struck out a batter and threw 18 pitches, 12 for strikes.
Kevin Gregg did the job for his 23rd save, thanks to an excellent catch by Sam Fuld. Fuld turned in another highlight-reel catch on a ball hit by Ramon Vazquez for the second out of the inning. Fuld caught the ball, crashed into the ivy, fell backward and held onto the ball. Piniella shifted Fuld from center to left and inserted Kosuke Fukudome into center at the beginning of the inning ... and the defensive substitutes paid dividends. Gregg was not fooling the Pirates. He gave up a double off the wall in left center to pinch-hitter Delwyn Young before retiring Brandon Moss swinging to end the game.
The Cubs posted win number 60 on Saturday afternoon (60-55 on the year). As the old cliche goes, every team wins 60 and every team loses 60, it is the other 42 that make a difference in a long season.
Zach Duke turned in another excellent start against the Cubs. Duke came within an out of his fourth complete game of the season ... in a losing cause. Duke is arguably the best pitcher on a bad team in the majors.
The Cubs took advantage of a gift in the first inning. Milton Bradley reached on an infield single to the hole at short. Derrek Lee followed with a single to left. With runners on first and second with one out, Jake Fox hit a weak grounder to second base. Luis Cruz tried to tag Lee then threw to first to retire Fox. Lee was called safe and that Cruz did not tag him ... replays showed Lee was out of the baseline.
Jeff Baker followed with a single to center on a 2-0 pitch from Zach Duke. Baker ran his hitting streak to seven and drove in Bradley with the Cubs' first run. Andrew McCutchen threw out Lee at the plate to end the inning.
Geovany Soto doubled to right with one out in the second. Garrett Jones misplayed the ball that allowed Soto to reach. Sam Fuld grounded out to first. The productive out put Soto at third for Tom Gorzelanny. Zach Duke threw one right down main to Gorzelanny and the Cubs' new southpaw drove the ball right back up the middle. Soto scored, 2-0 Cubs.
Tom Gorzelanny was impressive in the first four innings. He threw strikes and got through the emotions of facing his old team. At one point, Gorzelanny struck out four in a row. He struck out the side in the third and began the fourth by striking out Garrett Jones.
The Pirates got on the board in the fifth after Gorzelanny walked Ramon Vazquez and Luis Cruz to start the inning ... the Pirates number seven and number eight batters. Zach Duke dropped a bunt up the third baseline. Gorzelanny picked up the ball, threw low and off the mark to Jeff Baker covering first. Baker caught the ball lunging toward homeplate. The Pirates loaded the bases with no outs but Baker kept the inning manageable.
Andrew McCutchen stepped in and launched Gorzelanny's first pitch to deep center. Fuld made the catch on the track but Vazquez tagged and scored ... 2-1, Cubs. Gorzelanny struck out Lastings Milledge swinging and retired Garrett Jones on a deep fly out to right center ... Milton Bradley caught the ball two steps from the ivy.
Tom Gorzelanny did his job and Lou Piniella made the right moves on Saturday ... both with the lineup and removing Alfonso Soriano late in the game for the better outfielder in Sam Fuld.
The Cubs won back-to-back games for the first time since winning two in a row to start the series against the Reds in Cincinnati at the beginning of the month (August 3 - August 4).
Rich Harden will face Ross Ohlendorf in the series finale on Sunday afternoon.
For those of you that want Bob Brenley
as the next manager...think again...
he doesn't want it...
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/hayes/
Cmon Suzy...this article means nothing. It's the politically correct answer from Brenly. There really is no other answer to give. Even if he didnt work within the organization, no manager is going to lobby for another managers job. This article means absolutely nothing in terms of BB's desire to manage the Cubs.
I think your right. Remember Nick Saban was never coming to Alabama to be the coach.
Brenley's just biding his time by keeping his cards close to his chest. He wouldn't say he's interested half way through a season as it would look like he's questioning and trying to unseat Pinella. The media would paint him as unprofessional and in it for himself thus harming his chances. If he sticks with the not interested/back the team line his chance to manage us will come sooner rather than later.
I think you could be right Reggie. SuzyS, thanks for the link to the article.
A lot of things were interesting in that article. I have to single out a few things....RE: this year, next year, and beyond
This has been something I've been harping on for quite awhile. If you think this year's team is sluggish, old, and fairly uninteresting and unexciting, then just you wait until next year and beyond. We will be just like the Giants prior to this season---VERY old. Our contracts are untradeable. Nobody wants our veteran players. Soriano is overpaid, and worthless. Lee, for what he's given us this year, has largely underperformed during his deal, and he's going to be 34 next year. Z, while he can be dominant at times, is not an ace, and not worthy of $18 million/yr or whatever he gets. Dempster is ridiculously underperforming in his deal--which he NEVER should've gotten, coming off a career year. If anything, you tell him that he can have 2 yrs with an option, but DEFINITELY NOT a no-trade clause (which he got). And now, Dempster is back around the 4+ERA mark, which is PRECISELY where he's always been as a starter.
The future is NOT bright at all...and our window was 2008, and it's already closed
I agree that we are just going to get older next year, but with a different manager, there are a lot of good pieces on this team. Lou just has not been playing the right ones. If we had a manager that would bench the Soriano's on the team that don't hit, hustle, look like they give a crap, or just plain suck, then we would be much better off. Who cares how much a guy is making...he's on the team, fine...he can be on the team on the bench. Fox, Hoffpauir, and Fuld are valuable assets to this team that, if used, can really help us not be "old". We all know that Soriano, Gregg, and Miles don't deserve to be playing on this team...my point is that it is up to the manager to not use them. I know Lou's hands are tied cause of dumbass Hendry handcuffing him, but that's only to a point. Lou can move things around a bit, and we can still win with the right combination of players.
I am really pleasantly suprised with Baker at 2nd...that was a huge problem that for the moment has fixed itself. Bradley in the 2 hole seems to be working out good, so we have to bench Soriano...as everyone else knows! Maybe we can get the right combo of players out there we can make a run at this thing!
The following is an article on Baseball Biz about the sale.
http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3485:2009-mlb-season-will-end-with-cubs-sale-still-not-completed&catid=70:mlb-club-sales&Itemid=157
It seems the sale is a never ending story.
Worrying about issues on the field will not get resolved til the front office is squared away.
PeteM...Thanks for the link...I was wondering what happened to the August
owner's meeting.
A year ago...we were assured the sale would be finalized in time for last season's business and signing periods.
Now they are saying mid-November...The Cubs are in deep doodoo...on all fronts.
It's so frustrating.
We, as Cubs fans should file a class
action suit against Zell and the Tribune
Co. for holding OUR beloved treasure hostage for so long.
Reading some articles about the Tribune Co and the bankrupcy sounds like Zell may not be around much longer. Their creditors are tired of Zells crap to.
The Tribune's plan for reorganiztion has been pushed back to Nov 11 by bankrupcy court.
Yes, I'm aware that many creditor's and board types want him removed.
The guy has precided over the final
chapter of one storied institution...I just hope it doesn't become two.
btw...(I don't blame him for the newspapers problems...that is societal)
But I do hate people that pick at skeletons...and Zell does qualify for that.
Actually, case could be made for a drop in franchise value as a result of the delay in the sale...not being able to
continue operating normally...
hamstringing our ability to compete.
...All because Zell held out for the last buck...
I'd like to see Zell sued to Hell.
The reason I dwell on the sale of the team is because the Tribune Co is the reason we are in the state we are today.
Jim Hendry is not responsible for the state of the organization. The Tribune Co is. For years 28 to be correct we've been screwed by the Tribune co. Oh they put together enough teams to string us along to make us feel like we had a chance. So we came, hope springing eternal every spring to cheer our beloved Cubs. But they didn't care if we won or not only that we came. we bought shirts, hats, cups etc. They made their money.
So Zell buys the team. Now Zell is a smart man he has wanted to sell the team the whole time. He brings in Hendry with one charge put together a winner and gave him a payroll to do it. It just didn't happen because if nothing else baseball is unpredictable. Why did he tell him to win? Because he knew a winner would bring a higher price when it came time to sell.
Aaron is right it was all built for last year to effect the sale of the team this year. Just think how much the Cubs would sell for if they had won the Series and the economy didn't tank. Zell just didn't see the finacial markets crashing making buying a baseball team even tougher. No doubt in my mind he didn't see that one coming or he would have completed the sale last fall.
So nothing good will come of the Cubs until the sale is complete either short term or long term.
This is not praise of what Hendry has done, but an indictment of the Tribune Co.
Zell didn't bring in Hendry. Zell bought the Tribune with the sole idea of gutting the company and selling it at a larger profit. There was no "desire" to make the Cubs better. In fact, Zell is worse than the Tribune company. It isn't the Ricketts holding up the sale: it's Zell repricing individual portions of the sale so that when the Ricketts see things they may not want to include, the pricing on the other things makes it a "non-negotiable" price. Not to mention the overall pricing has jumped up a bit as well during the negotiations.
So yeah, don't make Zell out to be some sort of fixer or the Tribune company to be the only evil in this all. The Tribune has screwed over the Cubs plenty, but Zell has done more damage in the short time he's been around, and quite frankly, he could care less.
By no means am I saying Zell was a fixer. He was just trying to inflate the value of the Cubs for sale. He didn't care about long term.
I think anybody looking for Ricketts to come in with a wrecking ball and make wholesale changes, is going to be very disappointed. It will take some time for him to asses the players, management, and the team's executive structure. Changes will come slowly and I would even expect to see Lou and Hendry back next year.
OK guys, after a night to sleep on it,
I'm embarrassed by my emotional responses.
JoeS...you're right...the article means little re Brenley's aspirations.
BUT...it speaks volumes about the challenges facing a new manager...and how critical it will be to get the right man.
-Overshadowing that is the never-ending sale...that's holding this organization hostage. The ability to function as a normally operating franchise is being impacted.
CCO is therapy for the suffering.(LOL)
No need for embarassment....we all rethink some of our "takes" on things...my comment back was certainly just a playful retort....
I knew media would come up with this angle sooner or later. Brenly has proven to be quite vocal this year...much more--to me-- than he has been previously. I like it....but it also makes it seem like he is lobbying which I personally believe he is.
I think it is crtical to get fresh blood in there and shake things up. Listening to Brenly in the booth...he could be that man. I certainly would be VERY interested to see how he handled Soriano as the manager with as harsh as he is as a broadcaster....
It was the Trib that opened up the check book for 2006 and beyond--likely prepping for a sale they knew would be necessary as the rest of their businesses were losing market share. Zell didn't make his mistaken purchase untl December 2007.
A few topics ago, upon realizing that this was likely a year when we fell back from elite team status, I said the rest of 2009 was the time to find out some things. One was if Marmol, Guzman and Grabow were capable of being a top back of the pen. Another was if we could find some productive role players (if not regulars) in house. I like the progress of M, G and G.
Baker, whom I lobbied for in spring training to fill for DeRo (along with Barmes or Belliard) seems to be showing that he can be good with some playing time. Belliard would have been a mistake. Fuld has been good too, and that could mean we save the likeable Johnson contract next year. Gorzelanny is looking like a decent 5th starter or useful long man so far. The Pirates probably kept him at AAA so he wouldn't become elgible for arbitration and I'm not sure if he gets enough time with us to qualify or not.
Soriano and Bradley have hurt us more than what they've (not) done on the field for the team. They've hammered their trade value--making it even more difficult to move one of their burdensome contracts.