thecubsfan.com

Cubs 67-64, +1.5
Brewers 66-66, -1.5

POTG: CF Jacque Jones (2 H, SB)
Runner Up: none

Not to say I was zooming thru the post Z-explosion innings really fast when I finally got around to watching this (around 11pm), but I was momentarily confused when Wuertz came out to pitch the 9th, because I thought he had done the same thing in the 8th. No, that was Wood, and I probably should be suspended for mixing the two.

Since you know I’m just going to excuse Z anyway, let’s just skip all of that and start complaining on the offense. I’m pretty sure someone, maybe a coach of some sort, informed them Ben Sheets was just returning from injury and probably was on a low pitch count. Apparently, this message was interrupted as “swing early and often!” Cubs did get some offense in the 3rd with some first pitch hitting, but this seems like the exception. The Brewers, at least in this series, have been the opposite of the Diamondbacks – you want to get to the bullpen early and often.

I did like everyone running at will on Jerry Estrada. Hopefully that keeps up today. With no sweep, the Brewers aren’t going to be out of the race with a loss, but any distance is good distance at this point.

Cubs 67-63; +1.5
Brewers 65-66; -2.5

POTG: CF-RF Jacque Jones (2H, 2B, R, RBI)
Runner Up: 1B D Lee (2 H, RBI), C Jason Kendall (2B, 2H, R), SP Rich Hill (7 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 9 K)

many paragraphs of boring travel notes compressed into bullet points
- Verizon’s GPS is useless if you’re walking (downtown, Chicago)
- “look for the Sears Tower” doesn’t work when you’re surrounded by tall buildings
- I seriously should just go the way I know rather than listening to other people’s ideas.
- getting on the 12:30am train (getting in at 2) on a weekday is rough, though empty

I hurt or pulled or bruised something, somewhere along the way and could not sleep at all Tuesday night Wednesday morning. Somehow, I did my normal stuff on Wednesday but couldn’t manage the energy to do this before I passed out in the evening. I’m a little less out of it today, but I’m debating to catch a Kane County double header or get more sleep. I don’t think it’s legal to pass up two games at $12 for third row tickets, even if they’ll start 45 minutes before I get there.

Anyway, before I go see more games, I really should write about the last one I went to. We grabbed upper center field bleachers seats – I got there about 45 minutes before the game and staked them out because I hadn’t seen a game from there before, and it gave a nice view of the strike zone. Maybe it’s a weeknight bleacher thing, but I was surprised about how the bleachers weren’t filled till just about game time – it’s always been packed every time I’ve gotten there before. The seats worked out great for the viewpoint and good people around us, including the guy in front of us who kept coming back for high fives. The downside is no center aisle back to the main walkways, so you had to crawl thru people to get out for food (or you had plenty of people crawling past you to get beer.) If you’re not thirsty, it’s a good place to sit.

This game, as you may know by now, was pretty awesome. The Cubs blew oppurtinties to score early on, but we were focusing on the Cubs just working Suppan out of the game. It didn’t look like that was going to work out, because Suppan had too many 3-4 inning and was just at 78 coming into the 7th. I figured we’d probably get to see the closer in the 9th, but that was looking for too much.

I swear I thought Ned Yost was coming out to argue Uncle Cliffy didn’t try to get out of the way enough on the HBP. No, he was coming out to be an idiot. Yost was quite incredible in this inning. He’s not a Player, so he can’t quite be a POTG, but he was something – why leave Linebrink in when he was struggling so bad in that inning? Why have a lefty warm up and warm up and warm up, and never use him against Jacque or Ward? It sure didn’t work out the way he did it.

Hill could’ve been better, but he was still good. Soriano was surprisingly patient in his first at bat, but then turned into the swing first, ask questions later batter I figured he’d be after his return. Dempster and Howry were good.