Cubs 73-71, -1
Astros 63-81, -11
POTG: 2B Mark DeRosa (3R HR)
Runner Up: CF-RF-CF Jacque Jones (3 H, R), LF Cliff Floyd (2 H, BB)
One double, one home run on the night. NO POWER, NO WIN. I could do without bunting a guy over for a week in a tie game, I’ll tell you that. Maybe it’d just easy to say this knowing it backfired into a double play, but I’d rather give Pie and Ram a chance to get a big hit with Lee on first rather than taking the bat out of Ram’s hands while collecting an out.
To be fair, if Carlos Lee doesn’t make the defensive play of his life, there’s one more extra base and this is a Cubs win. And they took a lot of walks to get runs on – 10! – so they were making the lack of power in other ways. They were just lacking the one big hit to bust the game open.
I don’t have too much of a problem with Dempster’s performance – I was just surprised it Lee wasn’t directly involved.
This is going to be forgotten because of the crippling loss and all, but Jacque Jones at bat versus Brad Lidge in the top of the 10 was so great. Here’s how it went:
completely fooled swing for strike 1
completely fooled swing for strike 2
sorta half swing just to get the bat on the ball for a bloop hit
There’s no way that should’ve worked, and Jacque was as amused as anyone at first.
I’m listening to the Brewers/Pirates game as I type this, and things sound good for the Cubs so far. Still, the next start worried me. This was the site of Rich Hill’s big turnaround last year and he’s got to start a new one after his last two appearances.