Game One Hundred Twelve – Cubs 6 Brewers 3
The Cubs evened the season series with the Brewers at 6 with a convincing win over the Brew Crew in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. Carlos Marmol had another good outing, threw strikes and walked only 4 in 5 1/3 innings of work. The Cubs offense did not miss a beat with the day off and scored 5 runs on 5 hits all with 2 outs in the 1st inning. Michael Barrett, Aramis Ramirez and Jacque Jones all had good nights at the plate and John Mabry contributed with a 2-run homer.
Marmol earned his 5th victory of the season, the bullpen was outstanding again and the defense played a big part in the win as well. Ronny Cedeno played a very solid game in the field and made several plays that kept his team in the game. While all but one of the Cubs’ runs came in the 1st inning, the Cubs played another complete game, which is becoming quite the norm of late. The Cubs are 16 games below .500, just 4 games back of the Brewers for 4th place in the division….they have won 12 of their last 16. Since the All-Star Break the Cubs have outscored their opponents by 17 runs in the 1st inning and Tuesday was more of the same. Tomo Ohka retired Juan Pierre and Cesar Izturis quickly to start the game. Michael Barrett stepped to the plate and hit a double over the head of Gabe Gross. Ramirez singled home Barrett and went to 2nd on the throw by Gross. Jacque Jones homered to left center, Murton singled to left and John Mabry homered down the right field line. Ronny Cedeno ended the inning, but it was a fly out to the warning track in left. The Cubs did all of the damage with 2 outs….the Cubs did all of the damage with 2 outs, it needed to be repeated, it was a very good inning to watch.
The Cubs picked up another run in the 4th but scattered only 5 more hits the rest of the night. After a 1-out infield single by Juan Pierre, Izturis grounded into a fielder’s choice and Barrett drove in Pierre with a 2-out single to center. Ronny Cedeno was the only starter on the night not to record a hit, Carlos Marmol hit his first career double in the 6th but was strained at 3rd.
Carlos Marmol showed improvement on Tuesday. He had a good breaking ball and threw a lot of hittable pitches. The Brewers showed good patience at times and attempted to make Marmol work. He again allowed as many walks as hits, but 3 of his walks came in the last 2 innings he worked. The only mistakes he made was to Bill Hall and Gabe Gross, both hit solo home runs. The bullpen did another outstanding job and the run allowed by Wuertz was off of an infield single that went off of his glove, Cedeno would have made the play easily. Jacque Jones made a good catch in deep right off the bat of Corey Hart. Hart pinch hit with the bases loaded in the 6th and came very close to a grand slam that would have given the Brewers the lead….Jones’ catch will look like a fly out in the box score, but it was a little more difficult than that. Aardsma, Howry and Dempster were very sharp out of the pen, Eyre walked the only batter he faced and Dempster picked up his 22nd save on the season.
Carlos Zambrano is scheduled to take the mound on Wednesday night at Miller Park. Big Z will look to get back on the winning track against Dave Bush.