Cubs Dump Another One to the Pirates - Cubs 7 Pirates 14

By Neil on August 31, 2010 13 Vote 0 Votes

Game One Hundred Thirty-Three - Cubs 7 Pirates 14
WP - Jeff Karstens (3-10) LP - Ryan Dempster (12-9) Save - None

Ryan Dempster simply did not have it Tuesday night ... and the worst road team in all of baseball pounded the Cubs once again. Dempster labored through the first two innings on a hot night at Wrigley. He allowed five runs on 51 pitches before six outs were recorded.

Dempster could not find a rhythm but it was his mistake that opened the floodgates. Dempster bobbled a tailor made double play ball off the bat of Garrett Jones that would have gotten him out of the first inning. But instead, Dempster was only able to get one ... and before he could record the third out, the Mighty Pirates took a commanding 4-0 lead.

Ryan Dempster had allowed only five earned runs in his last five starts combined ... and he allowed that many in just two innings Tuesday night. Dempster left after three innings, his shortest outing of the season, and seven earned runs ... a new season low. Dempster's line: seven runs on seven hits with three walks, four strikeouts and a hit batsman on 70 pitches, 43 for strikes.

Dempster came into Tuesday in search of career win 100 but instead he picked up his ninth loss of the season.

While Dempster was struggling with his command and finding a rhythm, the Cubs' pathetic offense was busy making Jeff Karstens look like a Cy Young candidate. Karstens retired the Cubs on just 10 pitches in the first inning ... and sat down six of the first seven batters he faced. The Cubs managed only two singles in the first four innings.

Jeff Karstens picked up his first road win of the season ... and just his third win of the year. The last time Karstens won a game, before Tuesday, was back on June 19. The Cubs quit once again Tuesday night. Karstens allowed two runs on four hits without a walk, again without a walk, and six strikeouts in six dominating innings.

The Cubs young pen provided the Mighty Pirates additional batting practice in relief of Ryan Dempster. Marcos Mateo was not good but Mike Quade said he's working on stuff with Larry Rothschild. Mateo gave up four runs on four hits, two long homers, without a walk and five strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings. An error by Starlin Castro gave the Pirates a fourth out in the seventh, and ran up the Cubs' unearned run total. James Russell could not pitch around Castro's mistake and allowed three more runs on three hits.

Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol actually kept the Mighty Pirates off the board in the eighth and ninth.

The Cubs' lone highlight prior to the eighth inning was a two-run homer by Koyie Hill in the fifth. Hill's dinger was his first of the year ... the last time Hill hit a homer was May 29, 2009.

The Cubs scored five of their seven runs in the eighth off of Sean Gallagher and Chan Ho Park. Micah Hoffpauir doubled in a run. Starlin Castro singled in and scored a run ... and Darwin Barney singled and scored in the eighth as well.

Starlin Castro raised his average to .315 with a 2-for-4 night at the plate. Castro drove in the Cubs' fourth run in the eighth ... his 40th RBI of the year.

The Pirates ended their 14-game road losing streak Tuesday night and improved to 5-3 at Wrigley this season ... the Pirates last win outside of PNC Park came on July 28 at Coors Field. The Mighty Pirates continued their domination of the Cubs in Twenty-Ten and improved to 10-4 versus Chicago this season.

The Cubs finished August with a 10-19 record and with the latest embarrassment, slipped back to 21 under the mediocre mark on the year (56-77) ...

After scoring 14 runs Monday night, the Cubs predictably gave up 14 on Tuesday. Look, what can you say ... It's a Way of Life.

Ryan Dempster threw from behind in the count all evening. After retiring Andrew McCutchen on a ground out to third, Dempster walked Jose Tabata on four pitches. Neil Walker chopped a 1-2 pitch into right, Tabata ended up at third on the play.

The game ended on a bobble by Ryan Dempster. Garrett Jones broke his bat and hit a roller back to Dempster. Dempster tried to throw the ball before he caught it ... then he lost the ball and could only get one out, Jones at first. Tabata scored, 1-0 Pirates.

With Neil Walker at second, Pedro Alvarez lined a double into left center. Walker scored ... 2-0 Pirates. Dempster hit Ryan Doumit on a 0-1 pitch then served up a fastball right down the middle to Ronny Cedeno. Cedeno doubled to right center and gave the Pirates a 4-0 lead.

Dempster struck out Chris Snyder to end the first.

The Pirates went back to work in the second. Dempster walked Andrew McCutchen with one out. McCutchen stole second and scored on a triple to right center by Jose Tabata. With the infield in and one out, Dempster struck out Neil Walker but walked Garrett Jones.

Pedro Alvarez struck out to end the second.

Ryan Dempster took the hill in the third and gave up two more runs. Ryan Doumit led off with a single to right on a 3-1 pitch. Chris Snyder singled with one out ahead of a sacrifice bunt by Jeff Karstens. With runners on second and third with two outs, Andrew McCutchen singled to center ... Doumit and Snyder scored, 7-0 Pirates.

Ryan Dempster was lifted for a pinch hitter, Carlos Zambrano, in the bottom of the third.

Marcos Mateo picked up where Dempster left off ... and served up a two-run homer to Garrett Jones in the fourth. 9-0 Pirates after four complete ... and the embarrassment continued.

While the Pirates were keeping the scoreboard operator hopping, the Cubs managed only two hits, both singles, in the first four innings.

Mateo kept the Bucs off the board in the fifth ... the only time the Mighty Pirates did not score in the first seven innings.

Koyie Hill made it 9-2 in the bottom of the fifth on his first homer since May 29, 2009. With Alfonso Soriano on first, Hill ripped a 1-0 pitch into the bleachers in right.

Marcos Mateo served up his second longball of the night in the top of the sixth. Neil Walker hit another homer off Cubs' pitching, a two-run shot that gave the Pirates a commanding 11-2 lead.

The Pirates made it 14-2 after Starlin Castro booted another ball in the seventh. Chris Snyder reached on an error by Castro. James Russell struck out Jeff Karstens but Andrew McCutchen beat out a grounder down the third base line. Jose Tabata then singled to left ... 12-2 Pirates.

Neil Walker doubled to left center on a 3-1 pitch from Russell. McCutchen and Tabata scored ... 14-2. All three runs were unearned. The Cubs have now allowed 88 unearned runs this season.

Koyie Hill doubled off Sean Gallagher to start the eighth. Darwin Barney singled to right. Hill held at third and scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of Blake DeWitt. Barney advanced to second and scored on a single to center by Starlin Castro.

Micah Hoffpauir hit for Sean Marshall and ripped a double to center. Castro scored ... 14-5 Pirates. Xavier Nady followed with a single to center and plated Hoffpauir with the Cubs' sixth run.

John Russell went to his pen for Chan Ho Park with two outs and Nady at first.

Nady took second and scored on a single to left by Soriano ... 14-7 Pirates. Tyler Colvin popped out to right to end the inning.

For as bad as the Pittsburgh Pirates may be, they at least have players that appear to care and try their best every time they cross the lines ... too bad no one can say the same about the Chicago Cubs.

Box Score from Yahoo Sports

Tom Gorzelanny against James McDonald in the series, and season finale against the Pirates Wednesday afternoon.

Marvin Ferguson

Watching the Cubs during the Pirate series is like watching the Cubs during a spring training game in Arizona.

ripsnorter

Let's talk Pirates:

2B Walker would start for us over the beloved DeWitt: .305ba .821 OPS 8hr vs. DeWitts .272ba 4hr .728 OPS

CF McCutchen would start over Byrd:

12hr 28sb .277 .787 OPS at age 23 and for the major league minimum vs. Byrd 11hr .302 .804 OPS and $15 million for 3 years.

LF Tabata (age 22) in parttime duty (289ab) .311ba 4hr 14sb .788 OPS vs. Sorry-oh-no: .261ba 21hr 5sb .828 ops

This kid is an up and comer.

1b Garrett Jone: well, better than Nady, anyway.

3b: Alvarez looks like he might make something out of himself. His prorated stats are roughly equivalent to Aram's.

ripsnorter

Aaron asked: "And can someone please tell me why in the world Koyie Hill, Baker, and Nady are still on this roster, when none of them have much left on their contracts, and not a single one of them is projected to be with the Cubs next season?!?"

Simple: if you cut them, you still have to pay them. Why not get something for your money? That's JHendry's attitude, probably because his boss, Mr. Ricketts, wants something for his money. AND Ricketts knows that if you bring up a player, you must pay him the ML minimum, ie, he gets a raise. SO Ricketts would be paying for Hill, Nady, and Baker to do nothing, and give even more money for their replacements--on a losing team, nay, on a team that can't beat the Pirates!--money he could better spend by paying down debt.

Yup, Hendry is a real incompetent GM alright. Aaron could turn the team around in a heartbeat--I agree. But that ain't a goin' to happen because THIS IS YOUR CHICAGO CUBS!

ripsnorter

This Karstens is tough for the Cubs to hit. In 2010 he has 9 QS in 19 starts; the league is hitting .314 off of him as a starter, and .842 OPS. MAN ALIVE: he pads the stats of many-a player--except Cubs' players. Aram, DeWitt, Colvin, Byrd were all shut out last night.

ripsnorter

Pirates are 44-88 for a .333 winning %.

Vs. Cubs: 10-4 for a .714 winning %.

IF the Pirates only played the Cubs, they'd easily win the division.

If the Pirates never played the Cubs, they'd be playing a mere .288 winning %, and be #16 worst team in MLB history.

Now why can't a team with #3 payroll in all of MLB, and the largest payroll in the NL, beat the Pirates??????????????????

Grant

Hak will NOT be ready next yyear, maybe 2012 i feel safe there

SuzyS

Aaron, not much to disagree with...except ARAM would be silly to opt out...he'll never get any $$$ in this market with his current performance.

The Maven

ARAM may opt out if he believes that the Cubs will mess with his free agent status for 2012, like benching him the second half of the season. Remember, he pissed off management by not being agreeable to a trade to the Braves.

ripsnorter

Aram had an attitude like Manny--"I quit." Once Lou is out of the way, he starts performing. Z, too.

Who'd want his hide? Only some dummy GM---- like JHendry.

Neil

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/2204/colvin-takes-his-time-on-move-to-1st

Aaron

I am speechless about this team. Neil, thanks for posting everything you've done recently. It must be pretty hard for you to do so in the face of such ugliness.

It's amazing, isn't it, that not only is Hendry delusional enough to think the Cubs can contend next year with this current group, and maybe 3 solid moves as he put it...but that Ricketts is allowing him to be around for it?!? That, perhaps, is the most amazing part of all. I just saw something that astounded me. It was Hendry's quote from the 2008 offseason right after the team got swept, and right before he demolished it entirely.

******************************************

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0901-cubs-pirates-chicago--20100831,0,4290669.story

When Hendry was handed a four-year extension three weeks after the Cubs were swept out of the 2008 playoffs, he said the building blocks were in place.

"There's a whole history in professional sports of clubs that kept getting close, kept getting close and finally they knocked that door in," he said that day. "And that's what we're going to try to do."

But the Cubs have regressed in each of the last two seasons, and fans finally are making a statement by not showing up.

******************************************

Wow! In fact, I couldn't find the specific quote he had at the time, but in 2008, it was almost identical to what he said last year, and then again this year. Neil, you might be the perfect one to answer this, but in all 3 cases (2008,2009, and 2010), hasn't Hendry said something to the effect of "with just a few solid moves, we should be right in contention".

2009 saw us get rid of Edmonds, DeRosa, and Wood, three leaders, and vital cogs to our success in 2008. It saw us bring in, perhaps the worst free agent signings of any team that year with Bradley, Gathright, and Miles. But to make matters worse, it was Hendry's pathetic statements after his ill-fated moves that had a lot of Cubs fans up in arms, when he said he needed to make those moves in order to sign a big lefty bat, which hilariously, he considered Bradley as legitimately filling that void. But if any fan had half a brain, they'd see that Hendry did not, in fact, save much money at all. When all was said and done, he essentially saved about $2 million.

In 2010, he had to cover for his mistakes by eating part of Miles' contract, trading Bradley for an equally bad contract, and outright cutting ties with a horrible Gregg, who never should've been in the closers role last season to begin with, even if the Cubs couldn't have kept Wood. By the way, the guy he was traded for, Ceda, has a 2.11 ERA this season with just 24 hits given up in 38 1/3 IP and 47 K's and a 1.122 WHIP. Oh, and he's just 23 years old...but, I digress.

Same miserable excuses year after year from this dumbass GM. It's just unbelievable that he still has a GM job in MLB. I firmly believe that I could turn around this team in a heartbeat...heck, most of Cubs nation could turn around this team in a heartbeat. It's NOT that difficult.

Follow the Warren Buffett way of "Buy LOW and Sell HIGH". Is that too difficult to understand?!? Apparently it is the most impossible thing for Hendry to grasp. Only once that I can think of, did Hendry "sell high", which was on the DeRosa trade, and he couldn't even get that right, could he? He ended up settling for 3 prospects not even ranked in the Indians Top 30 list...This is the Indians we're talking about, just FYI....Furthermore, an event that should've gotten him fired right on the spot, was when the Indians flipped DeRosa to the Cardinals for 2 of the Cardinals Top 10 prospects. WOW!!! If Ricketts wanted an apples-to-apples comparison on what a good GM could do in a similar situation, dealing with the same team, and the same player could get, versus what Hendry got...What more could he ask for?!? (just FYI, Chris Perez has a 2.03 ERA in 53 IP and a 1.200 WHIP).

Archer might save face for Hendry eventually, but it's not likely at this point. Stevens and Gaub are already busts, and likely to end up off the 40-man roster next season.

And can someone please tell me why in the world Koyie Hill, Baker, and Nady are still on this roster, when none of them have much left on their contracts, and not a single one of them is projected to be with the Cubs next season?!? Would it be that bad to give Chirinos, Tony Thomas, and either Snyder or LaHair a shot in September? How about Guyer, who is Rule 5 eligible after the season is over?

Roster management under Hendry has been a total disgrace, and when he says he's calling up Hoffpauir, only to eat his words after realizing the 10-day option period hadn't ended, he had to call up Fuld instead. That, to me, shows how out of touch, and poor he is at managing a roster. Yet ANOTHER fireable offense. Am I correct?

As I mentioned, come Spring Training next year, we should see several different lineups (not taking into account possible FA targets like Dunn):

Hak-Ju Lee-SS

Castro-2B

Colvin-RF

ARAM-3B

Jackson-CF

Guyer-LF

LaHair-1B

Chirinos/Castillo-C

Hak-Ju Lee-SS

Castro-2B

Colvin-1B

ARAM-3B

Jackson-CF

Guyer-LF

Snyder-RF

Castillo/Chirinos-C

or...if ARAM declines option:

everything I mentioned above, but with either Marquez Smith or Vitters as the 3B.

The guys that should be getting looks on the bench include: Chirinos/Castillo (whoever isn't starting), LaHair, Snyder, Camp, M. Smith, Camp, Tony Thomas, Wright, Spencer, Campana, LeMahieu, Flaherty, etc.

No more FA bench signings like Nady, Baker, Hill, etc.

jerljr

Aaron,

Do you really think that that line up will win games.

Or do you just want to give up on the next few years to see what we got in the system.

Because if you think that that lineup will win games, whatever. Theres a reason that this website only really has 3 consistant posters. Aaron, SuzyS, and Ripsnorter.

Because everybody else get sick of hearing this junk.

You can say the junk you say all you want becuase it will never happen.

Becuase it doesn't make any sense.

Teams that go the route that you want to go do it out of Financial reasons and sometimes catch a lightning in a bottle. And not very often. They dont do it becuase its a formula for winning. But you can keep preaching that your way is the best way and complain when they dont do it. But there is a reason for that becuase nobody would do it other that you and maybe ripsnorter that if they did that he would just find something else to complain about.

But like I said. You can be safe in the fact that you will never be proven wrong because they or any other cub GM will do what you are asking. So you will never see how bad of an idea it is.

I'm done.

The Maven

Gee, I didn't know Ted Turner and the Atlanta Braves are in financial trouble. I didn't know that the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Angels were hurting for cash. Those are just some of the teams that develop young talent and cut their loses when they make mistakes with free agents. While there is no one winning formula, not playing the players performing the best, despite their contracts, is a sure formula for losing.