Cubs 28-17, 1st
Astros 25-21, 3rd
POTG: RP Mr. Automatic (IP, K, 2 marooned)
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (3 H, HR, 2 R, RBI), SS The Riot (2B, 2H, R, RBI), 1B D Lee (2B, 2H, R, RBI), RF Fukudome (2 H, R), C Soto (HR, 2 RBI), 2B DeRosa (2 H, R), RP Jon Lieber (1.2 IP, H, 0 ER)
Heart of the order, each batter representing the tying run, and runners at second and third for most of it. Marmol gets a popup, a strikeout, and a ground out to escape untouched. That’s as great an escape job you’re going to get it. It doesn’t stick out as much in the boxscore, because Ram’s home run put this out of reach, but Marmol was able to save this from an all square game with all the momentum pointing the wrong way to one where victory was a near certainty. Not sure if I trust any other pitcher on this team to do it.
I think Lieber may oddly find a new life as a setup man. His strength to the builpen is the ability to eat up multiple innings on a consistent basis, but he may also be the third solid guy in the pen (behind Wood and Marmol). Jon is far more steady than Eyre, Wuertz, and Howry at this point – outside of the one start, you’re pretty sure about what you’ll get it, and it’s usually good enough.
The botched home run call was a Cowboy Joe West call, and one that shouldn’t have been that hard. I know there are other umps the Cubs have histories with, but it’s him and Angel Hernandez I’m least pleased to see turn up for games. It feels like you’ll never make it out of series without an incident.