How About That?

Shut down most of the day against a strong Phillies team, the Cubs come through with a powerful eighth thanks to a lead off homer by Fontenot and a grand slam by Ramy and win this thing in a comeback 6-4. Wow.

This has been just an amazing stretch of baseball to watch. They are literally never out of it. I continue to be impressed. Theriot is still my favorite player. He’s one of the guys that got a key hit in the eight to be one of the three baserunners Ramy plated with his tater.

No one knows what the future holds, but this team is looking really good. It is so much fun!

Cubs Give It Away, Pirates Give It Back

Geo Soto!

I dedicated my evening to watching the Cubs tonight because the game started at 6pm Central and I figured I could kill some crabgrass after work, settle in to watch the Cubs and still have the late evening to get some more stuff done. Ha! This thing was attrocious. The game lasted four hours, used fourteen pitchers, and each team took turns trying to give the game away. Three Cub errors nearly got it done. When Alphonso did his little hop with only the glove hand up (drives me NUTS!) and dropped the fly to left to open it up for the Pirates to take the lead in the seventh I figured it was over.

Geo Soto!

But the Pirates were just as determined to give it away, and a seven run Cubs eighth effectively ended it. Woody tested my patience throwing everything high in the ninth, but the big run cushion paid off. So the Cubs kept pace with the Brewers, who beat the Cards. That gives the Cubs another game cushion in the wild card should they need it. I hope they don’t need it.

By the way, did I say, “Geo Soto!”?

Let’s Win Two!

It might be!  It could be!  It IS!

A Cubs home run?  No.  A Cubs double header sweep.  ON THE ROAD!

How sweet.  I talked recently of the need for this team to begin to drive nails in the coffin.  I liked what happened today.  It’s August 13, yep, I have a calender.  But still, you gotta like what you see from this team at this point.

For once, I think the pitching staff just might be getting handled in a good way.  Harden’s durability is a concern.  I don’t think he’s gone more than six since he’s been with the Cubs.  But the way he is pitching (see ERA) and the way the Cubs have been generating runs, you don’t NEED to go more than six in a lot of his games.  I like the logic of pitching him that much, not pushing it, and having lots left in his tank for the stretch run.

Woody is coming back at the right time.  Marmol seems to have some of this mojo back.  Samardzija has done well and may get a taste of starting at the end of the week.  Marquis is workable.  Lilly is solid.  And though Big Zeke is the hoss of the rotation, I think we take Dempster for granted.  For my money, Dempster is the heart of this pitching staff.

Kosuke is perhaps awakening from a slump?  Soriano is healthy.  Center field with Jimmy Ballgame and Reed Johnson - I like it.  D Lee at first.  Ramirez at third.  And what Dempster is to the pitching staff, Theriot (THE RIOT), Derosa and Fontenot (yes, Fontenot) are to the infield.  Gamers.  Give me those kind of guys every time.  They LOVE TO PLAY THIS GAME. 

All-Star game starting catcher behind the plate.  As a rookie.  Geovany Soto brings game, and his backup Blanco is a vet.  I like it.

Some of the guys the Cubs will be able to bring up from AAA when the rosters expand will be good.

Don’t jinx ‘em, but THIS COULD BE THE YEAR.

Sweet Sweep

Who woulda thunk it?

The Cubs win four in a row against a Brewers team that, today, looked in disarray.  I’m sure losing the fourth in a row had something to do with it, but those Brewers really looked out of sorts today.  Capped off with Fielder’s childish display at the end.

Gagne?  I don’t know if he was throwing at Jimmy Ballgame or if he was just that bad.  Honestly.  I think he got a rep as something special at LA that he might not deserve.  That 3-0 fastball that went behind Edmond’s butt might have just been that bad a pitch.

As a fan, I selfishly wanted a four game sweep but never in my wildest imagination thought we’d get it.  Now that it’s done the Cubs need to go back home to Wrigley and begin driving nails in this coffin.  They have the toughest stretch of the three Central contenders when measured against their remaining opponent’s winning/losing record.  The Brew Crew has it especially easy – so now is no time to let up.  The schedule in August favors the Cubbies – take advantage of it.  September is going to be hard enough as it is.  Don’t give the competition anything to work with.

Cubs Take First Two From Brew Crew

In the eagerly anticipated four game matchup between the Cubs and Brewers, the Cubs have taken the first two.  Given that this was against CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets, that’s great news for Cubs fans.  Now we have Dempster and Harden to finish the set.  Gotta feel fairly good about the possibility of getting out of Milwaukee with a series win.  No matter what happens, the Cubs leave Milwaukee in first place in the Central.

I didn’t get to see either game (dang it!).  The Cubs squeaked out the first one with a RBI by Lee in the ninth.  In the second game, they were up 7-0 in the bottom of the ninth before Smar..Schma…Shamar….(yeah, right.  I’m not even gonna try to spell it) before the rook from ND gave up one run before closing out a 7-1 win.  With that being a matchup between Sheets and Zeke – wow, that’s a great outcome for the Cubbies.  Apparently Ramirez had a monster night at the plate.  With double digit hits, he was not alone.  Good night for the offense.  Great to see that run support even though the pitching from Zeke must have been pretty darn good for the opponent to be scoreless with one out left in the game.

It’s only late July, but you get the feeling maybe, just maybe…..this is the year.  This is a solid club – it’s not a fluke.  They lead the Central which is one of the best divisions in MLB.  They are not sneaking in, they are (as Bum Phillips of the Oilers was wont to say) kicking the damned door in.

Mid-Summer Classic!

Fifteen innings of knock your socks off baseball.  WOW!

Bud has got to find a way to fix this.  It was as near a disaster as it could be from a pitching standpoint.  We need to really pad the lineup with pitchers somehow.  Kudos to both managers who found a way to play 15 innings of baseball with an all-star team with no re-entry (except a catcher in an emergency).  Francona has class.  He helped a division rival out big time holding Kazmir out as long as he could – and his boys came through.  That’s as it should be.  I’m becoming a Red Sox fan with that guy in charge.

Did anyone have an Uggla-er game than Dan?  Pee-ew-eee!  That kid STUNK!  Couldn’t catch a cold and wiffed at the plate like he was wiping his nose.  Pitiful.

Both teams were a combined 4-28 w/RISP?  Are you kidding me?  Somebody hit the stinkin’ ball!

Bases loaded jam in the 10th, and the NL gets Cook-in’ after Uggla boots a pair.  What great defense!  Some big time plays there!  “Circle up – do or die!”.  Twice!!!  Uggla should buy ‘em all Rolexes for saving his hiney.

Hope the NL appreciates the stones their manager showed by putting his own guy on the line for THREE INNINGS of late relief.  And Cook was the guy that got out of that bases loaded, no out jam.  Hurdle has class, too.  Great matchup between two quality individuals.

NL gets a bases loaded situation in the 12th, but guess who’s up — Uggla!  OUT!

Guzman, Tejada and crew get the NL out of a couple of innings late.  Big time plays.  Guzman at third is “as cool as the other side of the pillow”.  Icewater in that dude’s veins.  Tejada came up big about three times.

Glad to see a pair of Cubbies do extremely well in relief.  Kudos Dempster and Marmol.  Especially Marmol, who came into the game in a big time funk.  Great pitching against all-stars boys.

And the last play of the game was about 4 inches from taking us to the 16th inning.  Bang-bang play.  Great call by the ump!

Great, great, great baseball!  I love it!

Sorry Cubbies — no WS home field advantage at Wrigley! 

(There’s no Shallowbottom jinx, right?)

Marmol in a Funk?

Wow.  Five runs in the ninth is enough to give anyone heartburn.  Carlos is having a hard time now.  I hope the break helps get him out of this funk, because we must have a solid pen to finish this thing off in the second half.

Then again, maybe Hendry knew what he was doing when he got Gaudin in this deal?

Harden pitched well, even though he only got into the sixth you do want to be careful with that shoulder.  A shutout through 5.1 sounds ok to me for a first start.

Giving up seven runs in the 8th and 9th does NOT sound good however.

It’s a win, but you can’t help but think we don’t need too many more of these….

Hardin, Gaudin to Cubs

The Cubs picked up two pitchers from the A’s yesterday, and they look like good additions.  Hardin is supposed to be the best right-hander available and Gaudin is well respected out of the pen.

The Cubs have 10 more games against Milwaukee, and 9 more against the Cardinals.  Somewhat ominous that the Cubs are 2-4 against the BrewCrew this year and all of ‘em have been in the Friendly Confines.  Two of the three remaining series with them are in Milwaukee (7 of 10 games).  They need this new pitching to come on strong to be able to survive the “Cub killers”.  Six of those remaining ten with the Brewers are in the second half of September.

Man is this going to be fun!

Edmonds to the Cubbies?

When I first read this today I was dismayed.  How can a guy who was a washout for the last place team in the NL West be a good fit for my Cubbies?  Reed Johnson is not a household name, but I had really come to like the way that guy plays the game.  Heart.  Grit.  Determination.

And apparently a small ego. 

When asked about the possibility of Edmonds signing with the Cubs and taking some of his time in center field, Johnson had this to say:

“This isn’t about any one individual,” Johnson said. “Every single guy in the clubhouse wants one thing and that’s to go to the playoffs and a World Series. When you have everybody on the same page like that, I’m all for it. I want to get a ring, whatever it takes.”

Now I like that guy even more.  No whining.  No complaining.  Anything contrary he has to say about it is kept between him and Hendry/Pinella.

I hope Edmonds can bring something to the Cubs if he signs.  I have my doubts however.  I watched him for years in St. Louis and admired his moxie and his ability.  But that was then.  This is now.  We’re talking about the Cubs here…THIS IS NOW!

It’s time to win.  With or without Edmonds.  GO CUBBIES!!!