Cubs 48-43, 3.5/3
Giants 35-52, 13.5/12.5
POTG: Rich Hill (8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, W [6/12])
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (2B, 2 RBI), C Koyie Hill (HR [2/3]), 1B D Lee (H, BB, R)
I’m forcing myself to make Jason Kendall an independent post, because otherwise it’ll all be Jason Kendall and nothing else. This means I have to write TWO posts, and promptly. I’m not sure how I’ll manage.
It’s a great thing that Ram’s baserunning (or lack thereof) was completely meaningless. It was a double, he got to second, that’s good enough when the team wins because he knocked in the tying and go ahead run at the same time. The image of Ram staring at his home run to left, starting to walk/jog towards first and belatedly realizing it was headed off the wall was hilarious, since he made it anyway. It’s exactly how hurt his knee in the first place, and surely will hurt something again, and I have no idea how he thought that was going out, but it was all great.
I dunno if Rich was great here. I mean, he did only allow two runs over eight innings, but not many strikeouts and he did give up another home run. He was certainly better than recent performance, but I wonder how much of this was the Giants offense. I like Ray Durham, I would’ve been okay with him being picked up during the off season, but Ray Durham batting fourth is a sign of bad things. I also think we’re not giving the Cubs defense as much credit as we should – it really seems like they’re getting to more balls than previous years. Hardball Times says they’ve got the 2nd best rate of turning batted balls into outs (Mets are 1 better). If there starters can keep the ball in the park and not walk the other team, the team does extraordinary well.
I gave the ESPN broadcast an inning before I gave up. I have no idea what they’re trying to do with their baseball broadcast – sports radio discussion for those who want to ignore a game at the same time? Dunno.