This isn’t really Cubs news, let along Marmol news, but I just read that Albert Pujols broke Chris Young’s nose with a line drive. Take that Chris Young! That’s the bad karma left over from trying to knock Derek Lee’s head off. It’s hard for me say anything nice about the Cardinals but I like Albert Pujols and now I like him even more.
Well, that was a hat-tipper. Nothing you can do with a game like that except tip your hat to the Astros and say “Good game”. Two swings accounted for all the scoring from both sides and the Astros simply didn’t walk enough Cubs. Good game; we’ll get you tomorrow.
Dempster just gave up a grand slam. He gave a couple of walks and then paid the price. I guess since Marmol took a loss a few days ago anything is possible. But that’s why you don’t walk people. I’m just glad Miguel Tejada didn’t hit it; I hate that steroid user.
The Cubs are up 5-2 and it’s now the 8th inning. Lieber pitched in “Howry’s spot” and now Wuertz is in “Marmol’s spot”. This is just stupid.
Surprise, surprise. A lead-off hit. Marmol wouldn’t give that up. I know he’s been in the past two consecutive games but he’s what, 24? I think he can handle three days in a row. Ooooh yeah.
MARMOL is up now. You don’t want to mess with Marmol. A botched hit and run works out for the Astros–Bourne just flat out stole it. I don’t know if he’d been out on a good throw; he is really, really fast. Ugh, another hit and now runners on the corners with no outs. Why didn’t you put in MARMOL!!!
Ok, here comes Marmol. Why didn’t you bring him in two batters ago? Another stolen base…and here comes Lou to argue. That man has a gut. He should mandate as part of his next contract that there will be no profile shots of him. The replay shows Matsui was out but whatever. Two pitches; one out for MARMOL. Fear MARMOL. Berman vs. Marmol. This should be good. Damn, Marmol has gotten him to 1-2 and Berkman has been WAAAAY late on his swings. 2-2. Exciting. Now it’s 3-2. K’D!!! TAKE THAT BERKMAN. Oh Marmol, you are just stupid–CRAZY AWESOME STUPID. Did anyone NOT see that slider coming? Except Berkman? Hah!
Whoa, Marmol almost just took off Carlos Lee’s head. Oh man, it’s 3-0 now; it should be 2-1. Terrible call. Wow, now it’s 3-1 and while it should be that last pitch was too low. And a weak groundout to third. FEAR MARMOL!
Wow. Jim Edmonds just made a catch that made me hate him .0000001% less. Nice catch old man on the Houston Hump.
Geovany Soto just hit an inside-the-park homerun. Wow! A catcher! Way to go Soto! Cubs leading 3-0!
Ok, thankfully Marmol is back. He pitched a brilliant 8th inning, striking out the side. Yeah, he walked a batter but big deal. At least he calmed down quickly which is way more than you can say for Bob Howry. Good Lord, Howry needs to be traded. I don’t know why the Cubs keep him around–each outing is a stroke-in-waiting watching him. Scott Eyre doesn’t look to suck as badly as he did last year though so between him and Marmol, is there really any reason to keep Howry around anyway?
I can’t believe Marmol took the loss. His strikeouts looked so awesome that when he gave up that run to McLouth I just wanted to cry. Sometimes you have to tip your cap though and the fact McLouth was able to slam one of Marmol…well, you tip your cap. It was a great hit off the best pitcher the Cubs have.
Slacky! Someone hasn’t been doing live blogging of the Cubs game and I’m to blame. I’ll try to get back into it by writing a nice post-game of today’s blowout against the hated Pirates (just kidding, we love the Pirates).
First the positives–Soriano is hot (hot, hot) so I feel just the slightest bit of shame since I’ve been bashing him for so long. I take solace in the fact he’ll go back to being cold again instead of leading off games with homeruns. That said, I won’t complain too much about him leading off games with homeruns. Today was a great outing from Sean Gallagher. Yeah, he pitched like a rookie and walked people at inopportune times but he’s a rookie so to get six innings and only give up four hits and three walks–that’s really all you can ask for out of your 4th/5th starter and he’s certainly an improvement over even-sucking-at-AAA Rich Hill. I guess John Lieber is just sitting around because I haven’t seen him come into a game in ages.
Onto the bads: Bobby Howry needs to go. Yes, he was dominant two years ago but he’s just not that guy anymore. He struggled (at best) last year and looks abysmal again this year. I know he only came in as an inning-eater today (like he has the past few outings) but he can barely even eat innings; he gave up three runs today to let Pittsburgh back in. I did get excited that he might screw up badly enough to see Marmol come into the game. I haven’t seen Marmol for ages either. MARMOL!
Ninth Inning (Top)
Well, what can I say about this game to wrap it up? Nothing. Absolutely nothing good can be said today and because this is a blog about Marmol, all things should be positive. I find it disturbing that we got shut out again, for just the second time this season. The team is now under .500 on the road for the year. Not a good thing. Last year they seemed to have the opposite problem. They could win on the road and sucked it up in front of the faithful at Wrigley. Lee has more errors than anyone else in the National League. Yeah, I find it hard to believe too. But here we are. Fukudome had a terrible series against the Reds, but he’s a good enough hitter that he can bounce back. I have all the confidence in him. The Cubs just need to do the little things right and everything will fall in to place. I know, easier said than done.
We’ll see you on Friday.
Today’s final 0-9 with the Reds taking 2/3 of the series.
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