POTG: RP Michael Wuertz (1 IP, 3 K, 3 IHR stranded – if they had a Game Score like stat for relievers, that’d be a 100)
Runner Up: 3B/LF/RF/2B D Riot (3 H, 2 RBI, 2 SB, nice fill in at 3B), RF Jacque Jones (2 H, R, BB, SB), C Michael Barrett (2 H, BB, RBI)
WGN Radio via Chicago Sports: It (only) took a 4 loss streak to cost Pinella his sanity.
THAT’S IT. No more two days off in a row any more! All that free time only leads to pain. This story about A Ram hurting his wrist weeks ago, hitting 400, and then the wrist swells up…well, you know, I hope when Hendry was telling the reporters this story, he was doing all sorts of winks and facial expression to convey he didn’t actually believe this crock of a story, because I don’t know how any one sane could.
The DeRosa injury I tend to believe. I was more annoyed that he tried playing thru it, because he was quite obviously not feeling well enough to have an even marginally effective at bat. Santo almost went off on that, and I kinda hope he does in private – Mark shouldn’t be getting in the game if he’s hurting that bad, and the coaches should know that he’s hurting that bad and not put him in.
I’m pretty sure Santo slammed down his headset after the Ohman appearance – it sounded like that as they went to break. That was unbelievably awful, and it’d take a lot of faith to go to him again in any situation with runners on base (or maybe any situation at all.)
And Z…well, I think I wrote about it last start, where he’s really good, but he’s got that one horrible inning that prevents him from being great. Hughes had a similar thought, that Z appears to lose a few wins a great pitcher would have, because he self destructs with a big lead. (At least he’s hitting 429)
Regardless of if the Cubs go on to win 60 games or 90, this is one they’re going to regret not having.
Unrelated: I’m going to miss Extra Innings on Monday when you have to start paying for it and I don’t. There’s nothing quite like watching LaTroy Hawkins pitch for the Rockies, followed by Juan Cruz pitching for the Diamondbacks. And who’d ever figure that the Rockies has M-imitation funny commercials? Crazy.