thecubsfan.com

Cubs 27-33
Braves 34-29

POTG: 3B Mark DeRosa (3 H, 2 RBI)
Runner Up: 1B D Lee (2 H, 2 R, RBI), CF Felix Pie (2 BB, R, H)

The vs Braves stats were horrible for Jason Marquis, but this was a Brand New Jason Marquis. He might have been destroyed by Andruw Jones in the past, but the Cubs rebuilt Jason Marquis into a superior pitching machine, and that was a thing of the past, the Cubs announcers made sure we knew.

And then he was killed by Jones and the Braves and this one seemed pretty much over early enough that they handed over the 5th inning for an extended Pat Hughes CD plug. So not quite.

This was a disappointing loss, from blowing the 4 run first inning in the first inning, to the Cubs making it close again at 6-5, only for Gallagher to put it back out of reach. The game was pretty much over from there, with the Cubs getting nothing of their chances and not making many more.

You don’t warn anyone both sides have thrown a pitch. Hudson got away with one here, which came back to help the Braves the next day.

Cubs were bound to get a bad bullpen performance. It just happened to be this day.

Cubs 27-32
Braves 33-29

POTG: LF Alfonso Soriano (3HR, 4H, IBB)
Runner Up: SP Sean Marshall (6 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, 4 K, W [2/8]), CF Felix Pie (2 H, 2 R, 3 RBI, BB, SB, SF), C Michael Barrett (HR, 2 H, SB), SS Cesar Izturis (2 H, 2B, 2 R), LF Jacque Jones (2 H)

I think this Sean Marshall might have a future as a major league pitcher. 4 starts this year, all of them good, getting better as they go along. Like Rich, his curve was working, and he was getting round ball after ground ball with a team that knows how what do with ‘em. Just as Lilly and Marquis have started to cool down, it’s great to have someone else step up. I think the Cubs have their rotation for the season, barring injury.

Lance Cormier, on the other hand, has no business being a major league pitcher. He looked like a batting practice pitcher versus the Cubs in his previous start, and he looked just as bad this time out. The Braves putting him on the DL was very much Wade Miller like, because he’s shown the same level of performance. The Braves are really down if this is the kinda pitching they’re using.

Soriano’s three home runs were great to watch, no doubt. They’re also problematic, because they were three solo home runs. Once again, if Soriano would drop down to 4 while Ram is out, they might have blown this game open a lot earlier and a lot bigger. Instead, it was just three runs, and Soriano’s individual performance might not have meant much if everyone else hadn’t contributed.

I was really expecting Gallagher to get an inning or two in here, let his first appearance be a low pressure situation, and was surprised to see Wuertz used in the 9th. I guess it was justified by everyone but Dempster being off the previous day due to Hill’s performance, but they could use two days in a row off with this stretch.

Cubs are 5 games out after this one. You’re five games out, you’re in it. Still a long way to go, but they’re alive, my god, they’ve alive. Thanks for the crappy division.

Cubs 26-32
Braves 33-28

POTG: SP Rich Hill (8 IP, 3 H, ER, BB, 11 K, W [5/10]; SH)
Runner Up: LF Alfonso Soriano (3B, R, RBI, IBB)

When Rich Hill’s curveball is working, it’s a beautiful thing. He was nearly unhittable tonight, only making the one mistake to Andruw (which Jones hit a long long way). He probably could’ve gone the distance if they needed him, to but it made much more sense to go Dempster, and he once again had no real trouble here.

After his next start, when I’m not piling things in together at the last second to make it work, we’ll have to start evaluating Rich’s All Star chances. He deserves to be on a team at this point.

This is the start of the really weird looking lineups, with no Ram and no Hill and a major outage of power. With a less pick insanely paid man, it would make sense to move Alfonso to 4, Pie to 1, and the usual suspects to 2, but sanity does not prevail on this team. Murton going from buried 8 miles underground to being in the four slot was quite odd. It was no problem this game, but it sure seems that while Ram is out, either the Soriano/Pie/Lee trio is going to have to be on, or multiple people lower in the order are going to have to step up their game. Outside of this game, the offense seems to be doing a little butter, so maybe it’s doable.

The Braves crowd looked sparse – but there was still 32,000 in there. I guess the economics work, and work really well when they draw 50,000 on sumer weekends, but it doesn’t help the image of apathetic sports town Atlanta when there’s all those vacant sections (and plenty of Cubs fans making themselves heard.)

Another good Ryan Dempster start. I’m writing this while watching the Sunday game (it’s the 7th, though it may be later when I post it), and worried about jinxing the team.

Cubs 25-32
Brewers 33-27

POTG: CF Felix Pie (3 H, 2B, HR, 3 R, 3 RBI, SB)
Runner Up: SP Z! (6.2 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 9 K, QS, W [6/70]; 2 H, R, RBI)

So he only got it up to 96, not 98. That’s good enough if you can get 9K. I don’t know if I buy Carlos’ line about this start being opening day – there’s a 6.5 game deficit that argues against that viewpoint – but any day is a good to start over. If this is the start of a run for the team, it’s got to be the start of the run for Z. 9 Ks is a good sign, but 8 flyballs to 3 ground balls isn’t quite as much. That ERA still hovers over 5.

I actually drove past Miller Park on I94 around the 5th inning; there had been an outside chance that I might be freed up to make this game, though I didn’t really have much hope and was really just aiming to beat the Cubs fans taking the TriState on the way home. By this point, I was just focused on getting thru the rain and never ending Milwaukee construction to actually see the park. I think I was nearly to O’Hare by the time the game ended.

Pie’s still not a finished product, but he’s clearly been a spark for this team since he’s returned. It sounds as if he’ll start everyone game – or at least 9 of 10 – and you might as well at this point. If the team isn’t going anywhere, he gets major league at bats at a regular basis and is better of for it. If it is going somewhere, he’s covering a lot of ground in centerfield and adding some speed to the top of the lineup. I wonder about his stolen base total, because everytime he steals second, it’s real tempting to pitch around D Lee. Hopefully that’ll work itself itself out.

Marmol’s been pretty great since coming back up. Howry’s been better, and Dempster was good here. Yay bullpen.

Cubs 24-32
Brewers 33-26

POTG: RF Cliff Floyd (HR, 2 H, 2 RBI)
Runner Up: CF Felix Pie (2B, H, R), C Michael Barrett (H, 2 R), 2B/SS Ryan Theriot (2 H, RBI, 2B)

I believe it was in Parts Unknown for this one, but I was able to catch the game on the Superstation. Let me take a moment to apologize for the Superstation. In Chicago, we don’t get two helpings of America’s Funniest Videos, and certainly not as a lead into a Cubs game. The local version of WGN has more popular stuff – Friends, Everyone Loves Raymond. It’s not stuff I actually watch, but it’s stuff they appear to have spent a little effort into getting it. If the Cubs (and the Sox and the Bulls) weren’t on the Superstation, I can’t imagine people actually carrying itn on their systems, even is this world of 500 channels.

Anyway, this game. Lilly, like Marshall and Hill, has to get his curveball over for strikes to be effective, and couldn’t do that at all this game. He was pretty well screwed, because the Brewers are too good of a team to let a pitcher escape like that. Still, in a game that was going to be hard to win, it was nice to see the offense battle back and make it a contest. They were only one more hit at the right time from tying it up late – they didn’t get down and give up like last year’s version.

Cliff Floyd’s stay with the Cubs will probably be an unhappy one, if remembered at all. It’s too bad things have worked out like this – it’s not his fault for too many guys crammed in one slot – because I think he still can hit. This is fast forwarding a few days, but it’s unfortunate (for many reasons) he’s gone at the same time A Ram is, because he’s a far more logical 4 hitter than any one else on this team.

This was about when the “Players are angry with Pinella” story hit nationally – I heard local radio going nuts on it Sunday, though I had no idea of the context at the time. It’s hard to know how much to take it seriously – of course there’s people angry about not playing enough, but that was going to be the situation from game one. That’s still Hendry’s problem for getting people who weren’t going to be able to play off the bench, because Lou can’t add two more positions to the field. To some extent, it’s a problem that’ll be fixed when/if Jacque finally gets dealt, but we’ve been waiting for that for a long time.

Cubs 24-31
Brewers 32-36

POTG: LF Alfonso Soriano (HR, 5 H, 2 R, 3 RBI)
Runner Up: Michael Wuertz (1.2 IP, 2 K, 0 R)

I had no intention of letting things get behind, quite obviously. It was a busy week, of me being in Lands With No Internet (or cell phone reception) and lack of energy because of traveling. (I’m thinking I might have also discovered some allergies – spending the last month sneezing with an agonizing itch in my throat would seem to be a clue.) This game was on Monday, and it’s Sunday where I’ve finally decided to blast away everything on my virtual To Do list.

I’m relatively certain I was in Chicago when this game happened, but I’m struggling to remember, which is never a good sign. On checking the game story, I remember the pop up that no one caught. The rest of this game went well enough that that didn’t become Yet Another Sign Of A Loss.

The Brewers weakness seems to be in the bullpen, which is true of just about every team. The Brewers were too quick to get Bush, and no one could do much to stop the big inning from unloading once they came in.

This was one of those Marquis starts that wasn’t really good – he was in and out of trouble the first four innings, and ran out of pitches way too soon because of it. The Cubs bullpen has looked a lot better of late, and this was a prime example – 3.2 IP only allowing 1 H and 0 BB.

When the offense comes together, it’s a beautiful thing.