KC Game 19: Kane County 2 – Lansing 1

two for two on going to Cougars games and forgetting my phone. I keep foiling my own play to twitpic Ozzie, so sad.

Anyway, I don’t have all that much to actually type about this game and there’s a lot more I’d like to type before I sleep. There was some epic weirdness here.

Pedro Figueroa did not pitch especially well tonight. 5 walks in 3 1/3rd is not so good, and apparently weird for him (he had 2 walks in 15 IP coming in.) Still, somehow, he got thru it while only giving up 2 runs because of some catastrophically bad base running. Figueroa got 10 outs, half of them on the bases:

– base runner thrown out trying to stretch to a single into a double
– runner doubled off of first on a flyout
– runner picked off first (1)
– runner picked off first (2)
– runner picked off first (3)!

I don’t count a conventional double play as a baserunning out, but there was one of them too. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen three pick offs in a game, much less in the span of two innings. I’m still not sure I saw three legal picks offs – balks are tough to tell when you’re not looking for them watching a replay, but all the baserunners were sure he was going to home when he threw to first, and they were quickly cut down at second (though the last might have been a generous out call.)

Besides that, not a lot here. Lansing’s Charles Huggins looked really dominant. Both shortstops looked really shaky – they each picked up two errors, and KC’s Coleman muffed another pickup but just got it over in time, plus struck out all four times. Not a good night.

Crowd was in the 2000s, and it seems like 1500 were junior high kids from one school or another.

Game 157: Cubs 9 – Mets 6 (10)

box
Cubs 96-61
Mets 87-71

POTG: 3B A Ram (2 R, 2 H, 2 RBI, 3 BB, HR)
very close: RP Cotts (1.1 IP, BB, 3 K, 0 R, 0 H, 2 marooned)
Runner Up: LF Soriano (2 H, 2B, RBI, BB), SS Ryan Theriot (3 H, 2 R, SB, still over 300), B D Lee (2B, 2 R, RBI, 3 BB), RF DeRosa (2 H, 3 RBI, HR), CF-LF Johnson (2 H, RBI), C Blanco (2 H)

That was the one of the best games of the season, even if you only picked up right before Z was pulled out of the rotation. Big scores and comebacks and the other team making comebacks and relievers walking tight wires and living to tell the tale. Of course, it was completely meaningless for the Cubs and there might be 20 people besides myself who watched the game in Chicago (there’s a rumor there was a slightly more vital game), but it still was pretty great.

A completely crushing loss for the Mets. FanGraphs has them peaking at 91.1% win chance before the Cubs started there rally back from 5-1 and a 93.% after Murphy’s triple to lead off the 9th. The Mets had runs on 1st and 3rd with no outs in the 7th, 1st and 3rd with no outs in the 8th, and 3rd with no outs in the 9th and scored all of 1 run. And that’s Keith Hart, Jeff Samardzija and Bobby Howry, not guys who’ve been lightning the world on fire.

This doesn’t make up for 1969, but this sure is some good vengence for 2004 and the Victor Diaz game. Hopefully Harden kills them tommorow (or they continue comitting suicide), and then they burn Shea to the ground.

Game 71 to Game 95

Yea, I’m not doing 22 entires. Wanting to talk about a game, not being able to talk about beacuse there are a dozen entries left to go, and forgetting about what you wanted to say when it finally comes up is awful lame. So I’m going to go lightning round on these, and start fresh tommorow.

re: throwback day – didn’t actually SEE much of it. My experience was mostly listening on the radio, and hearing Santo complain frequently about the lack of replays (he can’t identify pretty much anything on the original play, it seems) and the overall setup. Ron was quite not a fan.

I did get home just in time to see Len do the Brickhouse HR call, which he was so excited about (and I’m probably good with missing him talking about it for three hours prior.) I did have time on that day to go back and watch a little bit of the early innings, and the 1st (or 3rd?) base camera angle for pitches was…well, you can easily tell why everyone uses the CF camera nowadays. Even if it wasn’t disorienting, it wasn’t very good.

71: Cubs 2 – Rays 3
POTG: SS The Riot (H, BB, RBI)
note: this is actually one of the more memorable plays. Consensus is Reed made a good call by trying to for the game tying squeeze bunt with 2 outs in the 9th, because it was placed just right, but Longoria was moving in the right direction and made a great play.

72: Cubs 4 – Rays 5
POTG: C Soto (HR, 2B, injury spotting)
note: this was the “oh crap, Z’s hurt” game. Luckily, it turned out to be a vacation.

73: Cubs 3 – Rays 8
POTG: SP Sean Gallagher (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K)
note: the night it went bad for Marmol. It kinda snuck up, because it wasn’t really like a switch came on – Marmol’s been especially wild for the month before, and you can’t be too concerned when he walks guys because he usually does that and still gets out of it. Not so much here, though it’s worth nothing it was Eyre who came in and gave up the grand slam. And everyone was still chalking Marmol up to one bad night.

Despite the sweep, I still didn’t believe in the Rays. I just don’t expect their pitching to hold up. We’ll see how wrong I am.

74: White Sox 3 – Cubs 4
POTG: 3B A Ram (2 HR)
notes: for all the vaunted White Sox bullpen, Dotel and Linebrink took it on the chin here. Ted Lilly giving up multiple home runs on even slightly home games is becoming very old hat. Howry got a huge out late.

75: White Sox 7 – Cubs 11
POTG: CF Jim Edmonds (2 HR, BB)
name: this was the utterly ridiculous 4th inning, where almost everyone scored a run. Soto got 2 of the outs, so Edmonds picked him up with 2 HRs. It was unbelievable to listen to, and hear two back to back home runs in one inning. It got closer than it should’ve been before the end, but I was pretty okay with Wood picking out the 1 out save for fantasy baseball purposes.

76: White Sox 1 – Cubs 7
POTG: LF Eric Patterson (HR, 2 H, 3 R, 2 BB, CS)
Note: E-Pat is very slightly past Dempster, who held the White Sox in check despite giving up double digit hits. It very much helped that Javi Vazquez is more than willing to pitch himself out of ballgames, and that this Cubs teams are more than happy to take any walks they can get. This one was easily over early.

77: Orioles 7 – Cubs 5
POTG: CF Edmonds (HR, 3 RBI)
Note: I was at this game! In the second to last row! It was still a decent seat, and a much better game than it seemed it was going to be for quite a while. When it’s 7-1, you start hatching escape plans to avoid the traffic, but this Cubs team scores as many runs in late innings as any I could remember, and it seems very very likely the Cubs were going to make one more crazy comeback at home. (Win Expectancy actually had them as 51/41 favorites when Ronny Cedeno came in, despite being down two runs. Bases loaded and two out helps.) Cedeno, Fukudome and Blanco are not the most intimidating threesome ever, but I could better believe Sherrill on the All Star team after he struck out all three on 11 pitches.

Not as crushing as trying to get of the parking lot after game. People driving crazy to sneak in line caused a car to bump mine from behind. I couldn’t actually get out to check, so it wasn’t the most fun ride home. When I got a chance to look, I couldn’t even find a mark. YAY BUMPERS.

78: Orioles 4 – Cubs 7
POTG: C Soto (2 H, 3 RBI)
notes: you probably should be winning any game the starting pitcher goes 1/3rd of an inning before leaving for major surgery. The Cubs didn’t do much after the Orioles moved on from the first reliever, Cormier, but they did all they needed to. Another home run by Edmonds, now making Hendry looking like the smartest GM in history.

79: Orioles 11 – Cubs 4
POTG: 2B Fontenot (2H, R)
notes: Jason Marquis being Jason Marquis. Not that it mattered, but no XBH doesn’t help.

80: Cubs 3 – White Sox 10
POTG: C Soto (3 H, HR)
notes: Dempster’s first really bad outing of the year, which didn’t make for the greatest timing. Lieber was a bullpen life saver on a day they needed it, but this one was over when Swisher’s home run landed.

81: Cubs 5 – White Sox 6
POTG: 1B D Lee (5 H, 2 2B, 3 RBI)
notes: not the strongest outing from Gallagher, but he battled. Vazquez was still bad, but the White Sox bullpen was much stronger this trip thru, and Marmol gave up just enough to lose it. Ram struggling hurt here – how else does Derrek get on five times and never score?

82: Cubs 1 – White Sox 5
POTG: 2B DeRosa (2B, R)
notes: being swept on Sunday Night Baseball, never fun. Marshall pitched good, just didn’t get any offense and Ascanio getting toasted didn’t help.

83: Cubs 9 – Giants 2
POTG: 3B DeRosa (2 HR, 3 R, 3 H, 6 RBI, BB)
runner up: SP Ted Lilly (8 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K)
notes: swear to go, in the first two innings, Len Kasper said “With everyone out, what we really need tonight is someone to pick up the team – a two home run, six RBI game, an eight inning start, something like that.” Never in my life have I seen such a display of someone skipping to the end and spoiling the results, because I do not how else he could’ve been so on. DeRosa got the hitting, Dempster got the pitching.

I don’t what to say about A Ram’s departure during this bit, because I still have no idea what was going. The whole thing was weird: papers/radio briefly saying it was for a birth while the game brodcast never said anything more than a personal matter, Ram asking for 4 days but the clubs deciding 3 days (as if that one day would’ve made a difference), Ram never actually going on the seemingly all-purpose bereavement leave so the Cubs could call someone up (seems like it’s been used for situations like this, but would require revealing what was going on.) So odd.

84: Cubs 1 – Giants 2
POTG: 1B D Lee (2H, 3B, R)
Notes: the token good Jason Marquis spot to keep him from being kicked out of the rotation. Giants young pitchers have talent, and it’s a shame the Giants team has no idea how to get hitting (and haven’t, since the World Series) year so they never support.

85: Cubs 6 – Giants 5
POTG: CF Edmonds (HR, 2R, 2 RBI)
Notes: Runner up to Fontenot and his big eight inning home run to grab the lead. He had to, because this was yet another Marmol blow up. He was throwing strikes this time around, but they were just being hit hard and hit out to blow a Dempster win. Going back to Fontenot, he’s hit for much more power than I ever expected out of the game. A near 500 SLG is impressive, and he’d be a 30 HR hitter if he was a full time starter. It’s really helped by Lou picking Fontenot’s spots well:

(starst as of July 18)
2008 vs RHP (153 PA): 11 2B, 7 HR, 275/371/519
2008 vs LHP (16 PA): 1 2B, 0 HR, 167/333/250

Yea, he probably wouldn’t be as bad versus lefties if he got more at bats, but he still would be bad enough that Lou’s doing a fine job keeping him in situations he can succeed.

86: Cubs 3 – Giants 8
POTG: 1B D Lee (2 H, R, RBI)
notes: Gallagher wasn’t bad – the defense really did not do him any favors. Bullpen was pretty universally awful. When Wuertz is the positive guy, it’s going bad. Marmol giving up the big home run ended this one and started the questions.

I think the Giants are closer than everyone thinks. Not that they should go for it this year, but hitting seems easier to acquire than pitching, and they have enough pitching right now. It’s up to their GM to get people who can hit instead of people who used to be able to hit, but the NL West isn’t as tough as people thought it would be.

87: Cubs 2 – Cardinals 1
POTG: SP Z!!!!!!!!!!! (6 IP, 4 H, 0R, 2 BB, 5 K)
notes: !!!!!!!!!!!!! oh did I miss that. The scene after the 6th was totally predictable but enjoyable – Z trying to talk his way into just one more inning, Lou saying now but offering him an AB instead. I like a lot of guys on this team, but it’s not the same without Z taking the ball every five days. Doesn’t hurt it was against the Cardinals, and doing it to them in their own park. Soto had a nice day – calling this game and hitting a HR for the margin.

88: Cubs 4 – Cardinals 5
POTG: 1B D Lee (3 H, 2B, R)
notes: Kerry Wood blew the game, which was notable for actually existing. I think people were worried Wood wouldn’t work as a closer; if they were told Marmol had a perfect inning and Wood blew a save, you’d expect peopel calling for them to switch roles instead of slight relief and slight disappointment. Even though this goes down as his 5th blown save, he’s been better than those expectations after struggling early. He was perfect in June, so you can’t hold this one against him too much. It was just disappointing to see the dreams of a crushing sweep be flipped into a painful loss.

Doesn’t really occur to me how important and valuable Lee has been until I go thru the list of individual games where he’s meant a lot. There’s not a lot of games where he takes over, and you could make the case that DeRosa had a stronger day here (HR/3B), but Derrek is scary consistent.

89: Cubs 7 – Cardinals 1
POTG: SP Sean Marshall (6 IP, 6 H, R, BB, 4 K)
notes: Ram had nice day (2 SF) and he’s not the only one, but Marshall continues to out perform expectations. He’s never going to be a top starter, but he looks to be maturing into a lefty who will make a lot of money for a long time. I’m sure, if money was no object, Marshall would permanently have a spot in the rotation over Marquis. Even though Gallagher has the better pitches, the Cubs clearly prefer Marshall. Two lefties in the rotation means at least one per series and more pressure on the lefty sluggers.

90: Reds 3 – Cubs 7
POTG: SP Ryan Dempster (7 IP, 2 H, R, 4 BB, 5 K)
notes: when did Aaron Harang get so bad? He was just awful here, no control of anything. The odd pitch that was hittable was hit hard. It seemed the performance of someone hiding an injury, and he did end up going on the DL after this one, so perhaps someone needed to be a bit more proactive here.

With 10 wins at home and 0 at home, Dempster’s officially ridiculous. It’s not like his stats are that different

(thru July 18)
home: 204/296/291
road: 225/296/396

The slugging difference is all due to giving up twice as many HRs on the road. He’s given up 1 in every single road start since the first, but you wouldn’t think Wrigley would be easier to keep the ball in the park. It’s still a great bit of luck and sample size stuff going on, but I can’t say I’d be too disappointed if he ended up getting like 16 wins at home and 0 on the road.

91: Reds 1 – Cubs 5
POTG: SP Z!!!!!!!!!!! (8 IP, H, ER, 0 BB, 5 K)
notes: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it was about the sixth where we realized that, if not for one bad pitch to Adam Dunn, Z would have a no hitter. He’d actually have something beyond that, but I don’t even know what you call it when a pitcher gives up no hits and no walks but his defense gives up an error. If not for that Dunn home run, Z would’ve surely been out to finish it. Same thing, if it wasn’t his second start from a DL appearance. Cubs almost needed him, but I got Wood’s second 1 out save in a month, so I’m not complaining.

92: Reds 12 – Cubs 7
POTG: 2B Fontenot (HR, 2B, 2 RBI, 3 R)
Runner Up: I don’t know that the Cubs have figured this out yet, but as much as I like Rich Harden, he can’t be the Cubs #2 starter necessarily. Z’s pitching the first game, whenever wherever, but Ted Lilly has to pitch on the road, even if that means Harden’s pushed back. Maybe things will improve, but right now he’s completely untrustworthy at home.

Home ERA: 5.34
Road ERA: 4.07

OPS actually has him about the same regardless of where he is – 801 at home, 760 on the road – but all his disaster starts of late have come at home. I don’t know why it’s not working, but he’s not the pitcher I thought he was last season.

93: Giants 1 – Cubs 3
POTG: SP Marquis (7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K)
notes: Marquis token very good start. If you’re going to pitch him, you might as well get it. Runner up for Ram, who actually only saw five pitches on the day. 1 hit him, and 1 he hit out for all the runs. That works.

In retrospect, Kerry’s struggles in the 9th was probably all blister related. They did a fine job of keeping that quiet until it got close and late the next day.

94: Giants 7 – Cubs 8
POTG: RP Marshall (2 IP, 2 K, 0 R; H)
notes: Harden was great for the time he was in, but 5 1/3rd performances was the reason I was worried about picking up Burnett. He seemed to have the same concerns after the game.

Marmol’s implosion was not fun to watch. He wasn’t helped out by the defense – his own, and Theriot’s really dumb throw. And he wasn’t helped out by Lou, who clearly did not want to put Marshall in unless Marmol collapsed on the mound, rather than risking his last healthy pitcher in play. It was great for everyone’s sanity that Marshall shut down the Giants and got the hit to start the rally, and it was great that the next day was the last for a while.

95: Giants 4 – Cubs 2
POTG: 1B Lee (2 H)
notes: the problem here was the Cubs kinda took the Break a day early. Not totally, but a little is all Lincecum needs. Dempster did not have a great game and didn’t get much help. Credit to Guadin for keeping it close enough late that the Cubs had a chance for a big rally, but it wasn’t meant to be on this day.

I’ll add up all the POTG a bit later.

07/10: Kane County 6 – Peoria 1 (3rd, SUSPENDED)

(that’s today’s game, I know it’s hard to tell)

From the time I got home until about the time I normally leave for the park, it rained and occasioanlly rained very hard. I don’t live that far from the park, and saw the “groudns crew” untrap and set up the field last time out. It seemed to me that there was no way this one was starting on time.

WRONG. I showed up five minutes before the game started, and they were ahead of schedule if anything. Peoria games are huge to the Cougars – they’re easy sell outs with all the people willing to spend much money for a Cubs logo, and I guessed they wanted to make sure everything started normal. (WRONG again, but that was a bit later.) The field was taken care of, though the seats were all wet and even had a bit of standing water in the aisles. It’s a warm enough night that it doesn’t really matter.

What does matter is having a pencil if you want to keep score, and I’d forgotten in the car. It occurred to me a little later that I forget the ticket window probably would’ve had one with their scorecard, but by then I decided just to see what I could see without tying myself to a pencil for a few hours.

Besides the usual Ryno appearance, the big news was Scott Eyre being with the Chiefs on a brief rehab assignment. In a few days, he’s going to be a slight roster headache for the Cubs, but today he was ruling the single A bullpen, chatting with all the Cubs youngsters who wanted to pick his brain. I had thought, due to the earlier rain, they might just have Eyre start so they were sure to his inning or so in, but apparently that wasn’t the plan.

Would’ve been a better one than the one they had. Jose Pina, making his second start with the team, had no control, had no help from the defense and was yanked after 8 batters and 2 outs. (Something in the 30 pitch rang too, and since he only went 2.0 last time out, he must be a low pitch count.) Mueller replaced him and really wasn’t much better. Larry Cobb touched him for a home run to straight away center, as long as I remember seeing in that park, and Cobb’s not a big guy.

Anyway, the Cougars were on pace for a nice win, something needed after a mediocre start to the 2nd half. The sky was really sunny to start the game, then got a little cloudy, but there seemed to be sun just on the other side of the clouds. Except, by the bottom of the second (after a really long first), that sun disappeared. “HMMMMM”, I thought, and took a look at the weather radar on my phone. A big wave of red weather was suddenly heading our way from the northwest. I did the reasonable thing. I got up, walked over the concession stand, and got myself a hot soft pretzel. (and it was the best one of the season, because it was actually SOFT.)

By the time I got to my seat, the 2nd had finished, and after the usual between innings shennagings, the PA guy made an announcement to the effect of “We’ve been told severe weather is on the way in 20 minutes, which gives you plenty of time to get to your cars RIGHT NOW. And now, the third inning.” It’s really hard to take such a warning seriously when they just keep on playing baseball, and there seemed to be plenty of people figuring it must not be so bad if they’re not pulling the players. But the players have a dugout, there’s no cover over this stadium (yet), and I had my weather radar, so I was getting out of there.

I briefly considered doing exactly what they suggested – going to my car, hanging out there for the storm, and then going back in the park once the delay was over. But I gave it another thought, and realized hanging out in a parked car alone during a thunder storm to see Scott Eyre pitch was not the way to go. There are plenty of times I’d take the lightning over seeing Eyre pitch, I’m not sure taking both is the best idea.

The storm’s going on right now, outside of my window. It was as severe as promised for a while (hail!), and now it’s just loud and off in the distance. If I knew they’d resume the game, I think I might drive back and see if I could sneak back in. But since i can’t figure that out, I think I’m going to stop writing this post, and start watching some AAA or playing some Burnout.

Update: they just suspended the game. Yay for not staying.

Game NEVER MIND: Cubs PPD San Diego

This was among the shortest broadcasts ever – it seemed no more than a 30 minute show between start (after the delay) till cancellation (oddly right during an interview.) They seemed so sure they were going to play until the end, it was sad to watch even while knowing what was going to happen. If everyone was going to travel to Cooperstown anyway, you’d like them to have played the game.

My idea is they should merge the Futures Game and the Hall of Fame Game, having all the kids play at Cooperstown. I think there might be a timing issues and people not wanting to leave the All Star site to see the game, but it’d be fun and it’s going to have to be minor league players if they ever resurrect the concept.

Game 70: Cubs 7 – Blue Jays 4

POTG: SP Ted Lilly (6 IP, H, BB, 6 K, 0 R, QS)
Runner Up: LF Reed Johnson (2 H, 2 R, 2B), DH D Lee (2 H, 3 RBI, BB), CF Jim Edmonds (2 H, RBI), 1B Hoff Power (2 H, 2B, R)

You know, you can actually walk a lot of people and get away with if you’ve committed your self to not allowing any hits. It’s not the usual way of going about things, but it worked for Lillly here. A lot of batters looking at pitches, and watching them dart just inside the strike zone. Got some Ks, got some walks, got some people not getting good swings. Lilly’s settles down a lot from early in the year, his ERA just hasn’t caught up to it and so everyone’s still writing him off.

Nice that team kept on hitting today, because the bullpen needed the help. And neat for the team to actually take a road series.

Three minute delays = secretly awesome. I can’t explain, but refusing to bat until the roof moves just so was a fine stand to take.

Game 69: Cubs 6 – Blue Jays 2

POTG: LF Reed Johnson (HR, 3RBI)
Runner Up: SP Jason Marquis (7 IP, 4 H, R, 2 BB, 1 K), 1B D Lee (3 H, 2R, 3B, BB), CF Jim Edmonds (2 H, RBI)

There are things you expect to happen in life. Jason Marquis out dueling Roy Halladay is not one of them. To be fair, Halladay got killed by his defense and most of the runs were unearned. Still, he’s the guy who threw the pitch to Reed that Reed hit out of the park, giving the Cubs a big 4-0 lead early on. Those runs may count as unearned, but Hallady had it in his hand to get out of it and go beat by his ex-teammate.

Meanwhile, Marquis just cruised thru short inning after short inning

1: 3 batters
2: 4
3: 3
4: 4
5: 4
6: 3
7: 3

It was the 8th where he finally got in trouble, but Marmol bailed him out as best as could be expected, and the game was over after that inning. Marquis just didn’t give up baseruners (6 in 7), and got enough ground balls to erase a couple of them. Starts like this are what average his numbers out to get large contracts – you just wish they were a bit more frequent.

If you’re going to face you ex-team, you probably want to face it like Reed did here.

Game 68: Blue Jays 3 – Cubs 2

Cubs 43-25
Blue Jays 35-34

POTG: RF Fukudome (2 H, 2 R, BB)
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (2 H), CF Edmonds (2B, 2H, RBI), RP Michael Wuertz (1.2, 3H, 0 R, one stranded)

The thing about getting One More Starter is the other guys don’t really impress me. If you’re going to give up the farm, you’d like to get fit for an ace pitcher, not a mid-range one. AJ Burnett, who got himself into the rumors after the game, was not much better than Sean Gallagher here. He did give up one less run and had a couple more Ks, but he also threw 13 more pitches and was just as done after the 5th inning. A starter who blows himself up in five innings does you more harm then good, because you’re trusting too many relivers on keeping it together.

Lucky for the Jays and unluckyk for the Cubs, five guys came in and didn’t allow the Cubs a run. After the 6th inning, they never really got on, and that was pretty much it.

About time we got the mythical Ronny Cedeno in CF experiment. If only a ball actually got to him. I want Fontenot at shortstop next.

Game 67: Cubs 3 – Braves 2

Braves 32-35
Cubs 43-24

POTG: CF Jim Edmonds (HR, SF, R, 2 RBI)
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (H, 2 BB, 2 R), C Soto (3 H), SP Z!!! (7 IP, 8H, 2R, 3BB, 3K, QS; H), RP Wood (2 IP, H, BB, 4 K, W)

I had this post written up, and I don’t know what happened. It was something about Soriano’s injury not seemingly like a big deal with everyone else hitting, and a bit about the Cubs getting big improvements at three positions three different ways

LF – big contract
CA – player development
CF – freely available talent

It’s a testment to the job Hendry’s done this season that he’s be able to find talent in many different ways. There’s certaintly a lot of money spent on this team, but it wouldn’t work without the young talent they’ve drafted and improved in the minors, and without finding the two CFs they got for basically free. Edmonds kept the Cubs alive, and Reed got knocked for the winning run.

Game 66: Cubs 7 – Braves 2

Cubs 42-24
Braves 32-34

POTG: SP Ryan Dempster (9 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 11 K, 0 BB!!!!!!, W [8])
Runner Up: SS Ryan Theriot (2 H, 2 RBI, 2B), 3B A Ram (2 H, 2 R), RF Fukudome (HR, 2R, 3 RBI, BB), CF Edmonds (H, 2 RBI), 2B-LF DeRosa (2 H, R)

I had a plan. I was taking off work early, stopping at my house just long enough to change into some better clothes, then zooming down the highways before they got buzy, making it to the park in plenty of time for good bleacher seats. It was going perfect, just up to getting home. I was in the house no more thn two minutes before jumping back in the card, turning the key and…

nothing. nothing turning over, nothing make a noise at all. Not that I didn’t try a million times just in case, you know, the car magically sprung to life again. I tried reading the manual, just in case there was a secret “do not start” button I had neglected. I opened the hood, looked inside, and realized I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at. It was at this point I finally decided to do the responsible thing – call around to see who’d be able to loan me their car so I could still make the game. I really couldn’t let a ticket go to waste like that.

Things worked from my favor from there. I did end up getting to the park about about an hour before the game, which wasn’t in time to meet up for tickets, but Maestroken realized you can easily (and probably legally) pass the ticket from inside the bleachers gate to people waiting in line for them. Maestroken was kind to give me an extra ticket for the game, and quick enough to scout out some nice seats in the second row of the bleachers, just behind Fukudome. The other people in the group were nice, cool to talk to, and tolerant of the strange person from the internet. (I did enjoy someone asking me if Maestroken knew me from posting on wrestling boards. Because once you say yes that, they don’t really need to ask you more.)

My big contribution was knowing who was starting for the Braves. This was a group paying enough attention to have an ongoing discussion about what it would take for people to actually start cheering Jim Edmonds (a couple more weeks, apparently), but the Braves have been throwing out a lot of mystery starters lately, and Jeff Bennett didn’t know he was going to be the next one until a few hours of the game. We never did get the full story on Jair Jurrjens to find out how exactly you miss a start because you twist an ankle walking down stairs so bad you miss a start, but I had heard about the change early to look up Bennett’s stats. He’s been a reliever most the year, and not a particularly good one, so I said he’d be bad and get lit up.

And Bennett was bad and got lit up, and it was great. It was kinda disappointing the Cubs didn’t do anything to any other Braves pitcher, but they did more enough to the first one. 7 H, 2 BB, 7 R, 1 beautiful home run by Kosuke, and this one was pretty much in celebration mode by 7:45.

Watching the game from behind Kosuke gave me a better appreciation about how he’s handling the situation. The people are in love with him, like they’ve saved up extra from Jacque Jones the last two years and are letting it out one huge burst on the new guy. Even when he plays bad, he still can do no wrong.

And yet, Fukudome is totally not wrapped up in it those cheers. Whenever he’d jog out to right field and get a big ovation, he’d respond with no more than a glove wave or a nod, and get back to work for the next three outs. It was a mix of acceptance and dismissiveness an older sibling might give to a younger kid who’s way too exicited about the littlest thing. Kosuke doesn’t seem like he’s going to let things get him up or down, he’s just going to keep on taking pitches.

The baseball drama on the night was Ryan Dempster, and his ability to make it nine innings. I figured his chances flew away with Corky Miller’s home run (that also erased the shut out), but Lou had enough confidence in him to let him go in the 8th with over 90 pitches. If Kelly Johnson doesn’t get out on the first pitch as the last batter of the 8th, maybe Ryan doesn’t get to go all 9, but he really didn’t have a problem finishing it out once his defense worked with him.

Like Ryan Dempster, the Cubs are getting better results than it seems to make sense they should be. You can question it and be conscious of the change to come, but you also enjoy nights like these. If reality catches up, might as well have fun while you’ve got some distance on it. And if it never does, then it wasn’t wroth fretting about.