In case you’re not sure what makes a classic Cubs game, this is it. Great starting pitching, solid hitting and then the complete and utter failure of the closer and the just-get-on-base hitters. Of course I would have pitched Marmol the whole game but that aside, Wood needs to fail in less catastrophic ways. He needs to put aside his small mistakes and focus instead of letting being ruined for the whole inning.
What a waste of Marmol and Zambrano’s stellar outings.
Cubs lose 4-3.
Nothing says “disaster” like seeing Ronny Cedeno. Well, maybe Matt Murton. On the bright side, Gagne has blown his share of leads. Wow, Cedeno takes a walk.
“And now Cedeno will be removed for a pinch runner-Ronny Cedeno” -Len
Soto’s up. That’s good news. The balls and strikes have not been called consistently at all. Wow, what is Soto swinging it. Just get a hit! Gagne might be old and weak now that he’s off The Juice but you’re not going to come back from 0-2…and sure enough, you’re K’d.
Great, Pie is up. There is a better chance of Gagne balking Cedeno in from first than Pie getting a hit. Send Cedeno for the love of God. Too late now. Wow, that should have been strike three–finally the Cubs get a break with the bad strike-calling of O’Nora. Now Howry is up for the 10th–might as well just lose now and get some sleep.
Double play from Pie. Thanks. Go back to AAA!
Ok, I’m hoping the game ends right here. Great, Wood hits Counsell with the first pitch. Can we put Marmol back in now?
Gabe Kapler enters the game–c’mon Wood, you can’t let someone named Gabe doing anything good. Wow, the 10th anniversary of Kerry Wood’s 20K game is coming up. I am getting old. I guess he is too. I guess we all are. Hit to left…and over Soriano’s head…GET SORIANO THE HELL OUT OF THERE!!! HE CAN’T RUN. GET HIM OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!!!
Thank God Jason Kendall is up. He’s a sure out if there is one. Or not. Theriot may have saved a run but it’s still 3-2 with runners on the corners with, surprise, zero outs. Wood looks like hell. I don’t know who to bring in but the Cubs are going to lose at this rate. It’s now 3-0 on Weeks. Throw some damn strikes! Watch Marmol and see how he does it. Oh no, you’ll just walk the bases loaded. Super. Now we’re just a triple play away from going home.
Now Steriods is up. You better strike him out. Oooh, just missed on the 0-2. I would have given it to him. Cameron goes down on strikes!
Maybe Wood has found his rhythm since he’s now gotten off to 0-1 counts on the last two batters. UH OH.
Weeks is out at the plate thanks to a great throw by Fontenot but Braun’s triple to right was pretty catastrophic.
“And the inning is finally over.” -Len
I wish WGN would stop showing Sox games. No one cares!
First up is Impatient Lee…who promptly flies out. I know you want to go home but come on.
Ramirez is due for a hit. But instead of a hit, you’ll just strike out. And you strike out on a ball over your head. Super.
Great, now even Fukudome is swinging at the first pitch. Shows what I know (nothing)–Kosuke is now 4-4 which means Darryl Ward is up…which means Marmol’s day is done. That’s unfortunate. And now Brian Shouse is in to bore Ward to tears by doing nothing but throwing to first. Boring.
Huh, Fukudome gets picked off. That was stupid.
And MARMOL is still in. This is fantastic–hopefully he’ll strike out the side again starting with Braun. Have I said how much I hate Braun? Oh Braun, are you giving lip about MARMOL’s strikes? That’s just going to make him mad…
K’d!
According to AMPM, MARMOL has too much “good stuff”. Hell yeah he does.
This umpire is not consistently calling all of MARMOL’s pitches strikes and that’s making me mad. Fielder should have K’d by now…
K’d! Sit down Fielder! No one steps to MARMOL!
Oh Corey Hart, you pansy. Bunting for a hit against MARMOL. That just means he’ll have to strike out Bill Hall.
0-2 on Hall…
Pop fly :( MARMOL only struck out four of his five outs. Rough outing for MARMOL.
Gallardo is out and Riske is in. That’s a pretty cool last name. I like Bob Ueker’s self-deprecating humor. He’s who I always want Ron Santo to be (sorry Ron).
Alright, Fontenot’s in the game now. I guess he’s the offensive replacement for DeRosa. Base hit for Fontenot! He looks like a snack next to Prince Fielder. Soriano is now hitting .167–just slightly worse than Dempster. And Soriano’s out again. Maybe one day he’ll make an out to somewhere other than the infield; probably not today though.
Nice catch by Cameron to rob Theriot of his fourth hit of the game.
I like Bob Ueker and don’t even mind that he says “root root root for the Brew-ers”. He’s a good guy, really knowledgeable about baseball and calls a good game. He can’t sing very well but he wasn’t gratuitously bad.
Theriot is now 3-3. Maybe Lee will show some patience this time. WTF baserunning was that!!! That was a great throw by Fielder to get Theriot at third–but I can’t believe that Theriot did that. He also tried to steal third when I was in DC and I wanted to boo him. You can’t boo someone trying that hard though.
I know that Soto is a man because he just stood up to Prince Fielder, but he (Soto) has some really…well, pretty eyes. Kosuke with a swinging bunt for a hit. Maybe Theriot’s bad running won’t necessarily spell doom for the Cubs this inning. Too bad DeRosa’s up with the bases loaded. He’s as reliable as my 2000 Taurus in the clutch. Wow, after watching him swing, I think the Taurus might be better. I also find DeRosa to be whiny in general. DeRosa–you owe Lee for that run. That was a piss-poor attempt at a sacrifice and Lee saved your RBI. And Fukudome is gunned down at plate on Soto’s double. Oh well, the Cubs have the lead which means one thing: MARMOL.
I know this is not possible but it seems like Ryan Braun is up every single inning. With Zambrano up to 87 pitches I’d start warming up Marmol right now about. Especially with a scant one run lead.
I can’t believe with the quantity of balls Zambrano has thrown Milwaukee hasn’t scored yet. When I saw him shut down the Nationals here he was throwing a lot more strikes. Uh oh. Uh oh. Uh oh. And now it’s tied…from Bruan. I hate him so much. Bring in Marmol. I’m not kidding around now, bring him in before things get out of control.
Why do people cheer when someone throws the fake ball back? No one ever throws the real home run ball back and everyone knows it–so why cheer?
Uggggggggggggggggggh. Johnson and Fukudome can’t make the catch between them. The reply shows it’s in Johnson’s mitt and he just flat out drops it. Marmol would have struck out the side by now. In other news, I would really like a pizza right now. THROW SOME STRIKES!!!
What on earth was Corey Hart swinging at? And could have tackier tattoos going down his right arm? Is Bill Hall wearing pearls? Wow! Great throw by Fukudome to nail Fielder at home! Great catch by Soto! And Soto took it like a man! That’s baseball right there; I sure as hell wouldn’t block the plate with Fielder running at me.