Only the Cubs could cost a pitcher a no hitter this way. Their best defensive catcher not only misses a chest high fastball but as he chases it down to the backstop he slips and falls down? Then three batters later a little pop up falls between the shortstop (who should have had it), the left fielder and the centerfielder for a…double? And that’s the only hit the Dodgers get in 10 innings?
Hey, things could be worse. The Cubs could be the Dodgers.
The Cubs actually screwed that play up three times. First, Neifi gave up way too early on it and it just kind of hung up, landing not far from where Neifi would make two other nice catches later on in the game. Second, Corey Patterson didn’t get in position to back up the ludicrously hopeless sliding attempt of Jason Dubois. Then third, when Patterson finally got to the ball he had plenty of time to gun down the loping Hee Seop Choi at home, but made a bad throw.
What was amazing was that Carlos didn’t freak out. He didn’t chase Corey around the outfield. He didn’t rip the rubber out of the mound and throw it at anybody. He just kept on pitching, and kept mowing down the Dodgers.
The only time he was in any trouble was during a sixth inning at bat when he fouled balls off both feet.
Oh, and he did fall off the mound twice. That’s always fun to see. I thought the second one, in which he actually hit the dirt was just his tribute to Mark Prior.
So why did Carlos keep his composure? Is it an inner calm he’s found now that he has redirected three of the five hours he was spending on the Internet into meditation? I think it’s because not only were the two guys who seem to be able to talk some sense to him, Hank White and Neifi!, on the field last night, but both were prominently involved in the screw ups.
Give them credit though, they also drove in both runs and the Cubs have won five in a row.
It’s funny how winning a game can gloss over some pretty stupid stuff. Take the entire ninth inning, for example. The Cubs get a leadoff hit by Derrek Lee. Eric Gagne is on the mound. He’s a great pitcher, but he takes like nine minutes from the start of his windup to the time he lets go of the ball. Plus, half the pitches he throws are unhittable 84 mile an hour change ups that look like a fastball until they get halfway to the plate, and then they die. Plus, you had a rookie catcher, who was gooped up on something because he looked like he was smoking crack between innings and couldn’t remember the signs. Mike Rose set a Major League record for most mound conferences (27) in a game.
What am I saying here?
Let Derrek Lee steal! Go, Derrek! Run! Get to second with no outs.
Instead, Dusty asks Jeromy Burnitz to bunt. Not only would one of Eric Gagne’s fastballs be just about impossible to bunt, but it’s not like Jeromy has a lot of experience with this kind of thing. The results, were predictably terrible. Lee was forced at second.
So what happens next? E-ramis gets his third hit of the day (for the third day in a row), sending Burnitz from first to third. E-ramis then decides it’s late so he removes himself for a pinch runner (the great Jose Macias).
Dodgers’ manager Jim Tracy (who is just about as dumb as the chair you are sitting on), brings the infield in at all four positions giving The Gremlin a clear shot at stealing second. Corey Patterson’s up, so you know he’s going to strike out.
Here’s where, if I were Dusty, I’d have had a little chat with Corey. I’d have said, “Hey, remember how you said you weren’t comfortable batting lead off, so I let you bat sixth? Well, I’m not comfortable with you being able to hit a flyball here to give us the lead, so I’m going to use Jerry.”
Think about what kind of message that would have sent to young Corey. Perhaps one of, “mediocrity will not be celebrated or tolerated?” Instead, Corey was allowed to strike out. It even took Macias two pitches to realize that not only wasn’t he being held on at first, but the second baseman and shortstop were too far in (on the grass) to cover second on a steal attempt, anyway.
Jason Dubois was overmatched as well, and he whiffed.
The Cubs got another leadoff hit in the tenth when Michael Barrett singled as a pinch hitter for Hank. He went to second on a sac bunt by Todd Hollandsworth (who not only can’t hit, but was hitting off of Yhency Brazoban–who is good, but ain’t no Eric Gagne–which made that the proper play). Neifi! came up and delivered a single to left. Inexplicably, Barrett froze between second and third, even though in the replays you could see third base coach Chris Speier frantically waving him home. Luckily Ricky Ledee made his first error in a year and a half, and Barrett scored easily.
The bottom of the tenth was completely routine, with Ryan Dempster hitting the leadoff batter in the head and then stranding him at second. Ho hum.
What did we learn?
That even when both Derrek Lee and E-ramis are red hot, that the Cubs’ offense is a flawed, impotent mess when it faces anything better than a journeyman pitcher. Smart guys like you and me knew that the offense woke up in the first four games of the winning streak because it was facing lousy pitchers. Now is not the time to be afraid to tinker with the team. As Frances McDormand’s character said in “Almost Famous”, “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”
It’d be nice if those forces knew how to get on base.
—————
I think the biggest disappointment of the road trip has to be that Gabor Bako is on the Dodgers’ disabled list. I know I was looking forward to seeing him in action. We got a taste of it on Hank’s passed ball in the third. That’s the first passed ball of the season for the Cubs. Last year at this time Gabor had a trophy case full of them.
Bako is apparently on the DL with a strained tendon in his knee. The Dodgers are being coy about how he injured it, but rumor has it it involved shower shoes, a wet floor around the whirlpool and his accordion. I’ll leave it at that.
Jason Jennings, the last pitcher to beat the Cubs, beat the Cardinals 2-1 last night in Denver. I tuned in just in time to watch the top of the ninth. Mark Grudzlk;jd;lkfj;d led off with a single and six-year old announcer Dan McLaughlin literally yelled, “Here come the Cardinals!” A botched bunt attempt by Abe Nunez and a double play by the least fat of the Molina brothers and if they were coming, it was premature.
Cubs’ fans are bemused by the inexplicable success of the White Sox to this point in the season, but I think the Cardinals’ success is even less likely to be sustained. With Scott Rolen out, they have two good offensive players, Lassie and the Generalissimo. Their bullpen is not just full of nobodies, but it’s bad. So you just kick back, wait for Karen Carpenter’s arm to fall off again and for it to warm up enough for Matt Morris to get back on his 50 homers allowed pace.
As for Mark Mulder? He’s 7-2 now, which is good. But he’s not striking anybody out (46 in 72 innings) and his wins have come against these offensive juggernauts: Pissburgh (2), Houston, the Dodgers (we’ve seen the last two nights how potent that attack is) and the Royals. He’s split games against the Reds (in one he gave up six runs in five innings) and beat the Braves but gave up five runs.
Maybe he’s just doing his job and beating the teams he should be able to beat. Or maybe he, like his team, is feasting on the bad teams that have piled up for them early in the schedule?
If you compare the Cubs’ and Cardinals’ records, the glaring difference is in how the Cardinals have done against the bad teams.
St. Louis is 10-9 against teams with a .500 record or better. The Cubs are 9-10.
St. Louis is 23-9 against teams under .500, while the Cubs are 17-14. There’s most of your 6.5 game difference.
The good news for the Cubs and Cardinals is that they both have a distinct advantage over the other NL teams when it comes to the wild card. The NL Central, in which both teams will load up on patsies, is the worst division in the league. Everybody out west is about even, and the east has four pretty good teams, five if the Phillies would ever get their act together.
The problem for the Cubs is that until just recently, they’d been playing sub .500 baseball against the bad teams. Maybe because until just recently, they were one of the bad ones.
One thing that you notice though, is that the Phillies are still under .500, but they’re not a bad team. In fact, they’ve enjoyed playing the Cardinals, winning four of the six meetings. You can assume that a team with Billy Wagner, Jim Thome, Bobby Abreu, Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, etc. will finish with more wins than losses. Then look at the Cardinals record against sub .500 teams.
It’s 21-5 to the Cubs 16-12. Yikes.
The bad news? Take a look at the Interleague schedules for the Cubs as compared to the Cardinals.
The Cardinals no longer play the Royals six times every year. So that’s a break for the Cubs, right? It means the Cardinals had to take an extra AL East opponent. Who’d they get? Baltimore?
Nah, they got Tampa.
Cubs Interleague Schedule
v. White Sox – six games (three away)
v. Red Sox – three games
at Yankees – three games
v. Toronto – three games
Combined records of those four teams: 118-88 (.572)
Cardinals Interleague Schedule
at Royals – three
v. Red Sox – three
v. Yankees – three
at Toronto – three
at Tampa – three
Combined records of these four teams: 116-152 (.432)
So much for Interleague Play being fair and well designed.
Andy, I’m glad you mentioned the Cardinals’ TV announcers. Spend just five minutes listening to those two clowns and you’d think the Satanic Fowl had won every World Series of the new millenium and they are a shoo-in for this year. Albert Pujols is the greatest player EVER. Derrek BELL (yes, I’ve heard them call D-Lee that on two different occasions) is off to a good start, but he’s no Albert. They also give updates of Cubs’ games every half-inning like it’s in the middle of September, and they’re almost giddy when the Cubs are losing. They even interviewed two Gomers on Sunday that the roving reporter in the stands had found and marveled how much they both looked like Scott Rolen (like that’s a good thing?).
what “roster move” will the cubs make to activate Koronka for tonight?
In the meantime, Ryan Dumpster has now saved 6 games. The Cubs have won six games this season? When did that happen?
From BP:
The Cubs are working on lots of things behind the scenes according to the whisper wire, but one thing that would help their staff would be getting Kerry Wood back. Wood’s rehab has gone slowly because he’s working on what was described to me as a “major” mechanical change. Wood’s violent motion, especially his arm path in the follow through, has always been problematic, so any fix would certainly be a major positive. The Cubs are resisting temptation to rush Wood back, letting him get healthy and let the changes set into the neuromuscular “memory.” A mound session for Wood went well and he’ll begin to gear up. A late June return is looking likely, but do not be surprised by some minor setbacks.
Hey look guys. I’ve got a hit streak. did you guys notice yet? it’s a hit streak.
My favorite part of last night’s telecast was every time they had a shot of Derrek Lee and Hee Seop Choi together. Now you tell me, was that a trade or was that a trade?
That’s what I thought, bitches.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to send down Dubois and release Enrique Wilson, so that I can shoehorn Matt Herges and Danny Graves into the bullpen. So help me God, by the time I’m through, we’re going to have someone in the bullpen for every situation imaginable.
Believe that.
Maybe you have one of these, maybe you don’t. But for those who are interested…
In April, the photo is of Nomar Garciaparra.
In May, the photo is of Mark Prior.
In June, the photo is of Aramis Ramirez.
It’s not like his back is going to fall off or anything.
Right?
So I’m at the Nats/Braves game last night and this arrogant dickweed and his yuppie friends and family start filling out All Star ballots. Of course they were doing it during their team’s rally, but DC area “fans” aren’t usually paying attention anyway. I overhear this tool tell everyone that “you gotta vote for Pujols, he’s the best there is”. My buddy says, “Um…how about Derrek Lee, he’s only the best in the game at this point”. The guy looks at us and says, “who?”. We tell him and he tells us that Pujols is the best all around player in the game and should have 3 gold gloves, and 3 mvps. I have never laughed so hard in my life. So, it looks like Pujols will be starting the game and Lee will be lucky to get on the squad. I can hear the genius now…” we though Todd Helton should be here, since we want to keep his streak going, and how can you argue against Nick Johnson?” At this rate, D Lee will be the last ditch vote guy on mlb.com.
Hey Dusty- I don’t feel comfortable with a hit streak. Too much pressure.
What? No mention of the absolutely bogus catcher interference call last night on Dubois???
Winds may blow over the icy sea and I will sway with them. As I said Monday after the Sox had lost three in a row, “As some of us have suspected all along, you can’t chip and dink out runs for 162 games and expect your starting pitchers to bail out the cause every time. …Excuse me, but are those the Minnesota Twins only 3-1/2 games back now? Pardon me, but have the Sox sunk to ninth in the American League in runs scored after managing 17 in their last seven games?” http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay30.html
Ah, but the Sox have won two straight in the ninth. Time to change my tune. “Not only did the win further verify what is special about the Sox…” “it’s easy to blow off shots when you have baseball’s best record after 52 games.” http://www.suntimes.com/output/mariotti/cst-spt-jay01.html
The chip and dink comment is no longer operable. Thank you.
P.S. How do I come up with such witicisms as “Soxpaganda”?
Carlos is such a stud pitcher! What a game again last night? He’s got to be pissed off though with yet another no decision.
Is Neifi the leader of this team or what? You have to give him some credit for his effort to bring this team some what together.
I’m still getting sick to death of Korey Patterson striking out with runners in scoring position. Then of course his great defense too again last night. He makes a great play once out of every 10. But is that really worth it in the end. Nice hitting streak too while you never hit anybody in either. Those solo homers do a lot. Get rid of him. I’m joining the Fuck Korey fan club. Chuck, sign me up.
FDAKF=Fuck Dusty And Korey Forever
Baker Basher
Hey bitches, remember that time when I replaced Patterson in CF for you in 2003 and led you to within 5 outs of the pennant? That was awesome.
You can go back, Kenny. I have no use for your old ass.
Hey Chuck, nothing like having Baker basher as a member to give ‘your’ club some credibility, huh?
Look at my OPS, bitch!
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=4789
Scotty Podsednik can kiss my sweet hiney!
Rumors are that he was EITHER headed to the Marlins for Juan Encarnacion (there’s a law that says the Marlins have to trade Juan every year).
or? or???
…oops.
Or to the Reds, but I couldn’t find anything that confirmed who it would be for and did a nice job of editing. In the spring the Reds supposedly offered Wily Mo for Day but Bowden wanted another player so the deal never got done.
So there you go.
I like how Corey tries bunting for a hit when there’s nobody on base and two outs, and then, with a chance to win the game by merely PUTTING THE BALL ON THE GRASS, he flails away. What is it with this guy? With each passing day, he reminds me more and more of Sam Me–defiant, stubborn, with absolutely no concept of TEAM rattling around inside of his racquetball-sized brain. Put the ball on the grass with a bunt and the Cubs win in 9. Instead, this delusional asshole thinks he can take Gagne yard. Unbelievable.
He’s getting worse defensively, too. He’s not making the money catches out there any more. The fact that he appears unwilling to adminsiter to his shortcomings with eyes wide open is what is most troubling. Launch him.
Suspense: Colorado for Preston Wilson
Gee. Everyone lay off Korey. The bile is starting to meake even me feel bad for him.
Well, not really. But it is fun to start sounding like a sane voice in the delirium.
Has anyone notice the gladiator’s tasty line lately:
Avg. 246 OBP. 309 Slg. 376 HR 4 RBI 16 AB 134 , I am impressed with his 21 k’s in 145 plate apprearances. No homers since April 24th. I know he was on the dl, but that still sucks!!!
I just want to be loved.
The Gladiator made a nice catch last night going into that weird part of right field in Fenway where it kind of rounds out into the stands by Pesky’s Pole.
So he’s got that going for him.
I also think we’re kind of taking Corey’s defense for granted. He should have had the Saenz “double” on Monday and last night that throw was horrendous, but for the most part he does get good jumps on balls and he covers as much ground as anybody in the NL. That said, I still think he’s worth more in trade than he is in production now.
I do cover a lot of ground, it’s what I do when I get to the ball that makes me bad. Hendry could trade me for some good talent right now. I am an extremely stubborn waste of talent, and I’m sure there are plenty of teams out there who think they can fix me. Please trade me.
Korey’s D is good. Spectacular on the odd occasion. But it’s not good enough given his O. And his D is inconsistent.
Someone else will think they can fix him. And having him arb eligible for 2 years is a good window to try.
I’d actually CATCH the flyballs Corey drops.
so would I…….
Scott,
We’ve seen you play.
No you wouldn’t.
I think if we want to trade Patterson we need to look at the Twins. Stewart, Jones, Ford, or Hunter. I think Stewart could be an intriquing option. I don’t know his salary situation though.
Stewart’s old, expensive and injury prone. Of the four, I’d want Lew Ford. I don’t see the Twins wanting Corey though, but they might take DuBois.
Twins want pitching.
And the reverse, Sloth wants twins.
Preferably French twins, or red-headed Irish twins, but I’m not particularly picky
I’d even take them so-called Russian ‘dykes’ who sing for TATU
I’ne joss waum to be lubbed.
I’ne sorry, I no unnerstam…
Andy…..
Chicago has seen Corey “play” CF, and he couldn’t hold my jock strap….and we all know he’d like to!!!
I heard those commercials the Sox wrote for you Scotty. Nice.
You like gladiator movies, Scotty?
A witty quote from the most overrated CF ever………
Go home Jimmy…Albert wants to show you something.
You got a problem with Corey’s outfield defense? I remember when the Cubs had both Kiner and Sauer playing rightfield and leftfield. Can you imagine what the poor centerfielder must have gone through?
How come nobody’s talking about the my streak? 6 games!!!
Yo Sloth, the redhead from Tatu is/was hot! Too bad their 15 minutes of fame only lasted 10 minutes–though I admit, I bought the CD. You do know they’re not really lez, right??
Hi everybody! I’m dealing Lincolns and Mercurys, and telling Mike North that none of our fans or analysts should ever question anything we do! What does Jeff Brantley’s perm know? What does Steve Stone know? They’re idiots. This is a JOB to me! It’s a hobby for all of you!
Wait until we tank, and this coaching staff won’t get out of Bridgeport alive.
Fear me.