|
|
|||
|
|
|||
• Wrigley Rooftop Directory
|
A wonderful evening for a ballgameFriday, July 16, 2004 In many ways, I despise the All-Star break. Right as the season is warming up, trade rumors are flying through the air, and the "games back" column is starting to pressure the bubble teams... baseball takes a three day break. Anyhow, after escaping near certain banishment to the wild card race on Monday night, the Cubs had Mark Prior on the hill vs. the overachieving Brew Crew, at home, playing under the lights. In a phrase, it was a wonderful evening for a ballgame... or was it? By now, you know Mark Prior was felled with a mighty blow to the elbow while on the mound by gargantuan aliens invading from outer-space in an attempt to stop the Cubs from running away with the Central division... or something like that. ALL CUBDOM PANICED And now its time to take a deep breath and relax. I'm not going to insult my readers by saying/implying that Prior's health isn't important and vital to this team's success. However, I will say that since the Cubs have had their starting rotation intact for all of 10.2 innings, we shouldn't be flipping out over a return to the status quo. Yes, in the first half, we took on the Red-Birds with one arm tied behind our backs (actually a lot more than one... lets see Remlinger 2x, Prior, Wood, Wellemeyer, Borowski, etc.) and the Red-birds licked us. That doesn't mean we can't get off the mat and try again. Last year, the Cubs had a .500 record at the break, and lost 2 of 3 out of the second-half gate. While the NL central is definitely tougher this year, the NL as a whole is not. The Cubs are in an excellent position to make a run at the Wild Card, and if we take care of business, we might upgrade to the NL Central title if the St. Louis Yankees start playing like the St. Louis Cardinals. Thursday Night's Game: Mark Prior pitches 1.2 innings, allows 1 run on a Scott Podsednick leadoff two bagger, and two sacrifice flies. After coming down with a sore elbow, Prior gave way to Glendon Rusch (I've been trying to figure out a nick name for Glendon that involves the letters MVP... kinda like Cy Zambrano... although MVP Rusch just doesn't have the ring). Glendo-man proceeded to pitch 5.1 innings of shutout, emergency spot-startish relief. The bullpen (Remlinger, Farnsworth, and Hawkins) chipped in another 2 scoreless. In total, the Cubs pitchers combined for nine innings of 1 run baseball, allowing only 5 hits, striking out 5, and walking 9! The last part about walking 9 made for both an exciting/stressful game, and an interesting opportunity to look up some trivia... Drum roll please... The last team to walk at least 9, while limiting the opponent to 1 or fewer runs was the Atlanta Braves on July 4th, 2002. In an ironic twist, the Cubs were the opponent and Prior was pitching in that game, although it was the Braves who walked 9, but only allowed one run. (The run resulted from a Prior double and a Sosa single... no walk resulted in a run Thursday, or two years ago.) (Other trivia: There have only been 10 games with 9+ walks and 1 or fewer runs since the start of the 2000 season.) The Offense had a decent night Thursday, scoring 4 runs. D. Lee drove in the first run when he hit a line drive home run in the second. Coming right after Prior left the game, Lee's home run seemed like a big pick me up, as if he was saying... "Mark, you're not losing this game, just fix the elbow." In the sixth, the Cubs pushed across three more runs. Jose Macias reached on a speed induced error committed by Craig Counsell. In a rush to get the 'fleet of foot' Macias, Counsell bobbled the ball on the transfer from glove to throwing hand. Corey Patterson followed up with a single in the gap, and Macias (perhaps unwisely) tested Podsednick's arm... just barely beating the throw (would have made the first out at third). With C-Pat playing heads up ball, he cruised into second allowing Sammy to come to bat with men on 2nd and 3rd with none out. A Doug Davis wild pitch later, and Macias scored with Corey advancing to third. Despite a Sammy Sosa strikeout, Moises Alou followed up with a sinking line drive that Podsednick dived for and missed. The ball nearly rolled to the wall, and Moises Alou had a triple. Derrek Lee then picked up his second rib-eye of the night when his shot to the wall remained in the vines for a ground rule double. Unfortunately, the St. Louis Yankees prevailed again last night, and the Cubs remain 7 games back. In other news, I am gonna be "in communicado" for the next three days or so. Have a great weekend everyone. Posted by Byron at July 16, 2004 7:52 AM
|
|
||||||||||
| Subscribe to The Cubdom - get emails with the latest Cubs info and pictures | |
This post has been tagged: |
|
