Cubs @ Astros, Game 45

Cubs 7, Astros 2 WP: Lilly (5), LP: Sampson
Record: 28-17 (1st place)

Soto: “I was like, ‘No way.’ I was using my last breath to get to third, and he wants me to go home.”

It looked like it should’ve been an actual out-of-the-park home run but Geovany had to earn it by running full steam around the bases, making it to home plate standing up. The Cubs (with the help of Carlos Marmol and bullpen, once again) put up a huge win against the Astros tonight. Lance Berkman went 0 for 4 with 3 K’s coming into today with a 17-game hitting streak.

The Cubs are still making a case for themselves as the best team in baseball. With 262 runs scored and 186 runs scored, their 76 run differential is the largest in baseball. The team with the second most runs scored is Boston with 246. When the Cubs offense is clicking on all cylinders, they are unstoppable. Even when it isn’t, anyone on the team can step up.

I’m not surprised at all by Soto’s emergence as one of the top catchers in the league. As a tribute to the best Cubs rookie since Jerome Walton, let’s take a look at all of his extra-base hits. He seems to like them a lot.

This game was a lot closer than the final score would indicate. Ted Lilly was in trouble in the ninth with Carlos Lee on second when Hunter Pence hit a long fly ball into straightaway center. I saw it traveling and Jim Edmonds running backwards trying to track and I thought “he isn’t even close”. Then he makes the backwards over-the-shoulder basket catch. If you’re going to do stuff like that, you can play for this team.

Michael Wuertz came in in relief in the 8th of Jon Lieber, who did a fantastic job in the 6th and 7th after Lilly was done. He gave up two straight hits to Michael Bourn and Kaz Matsui and Piniella wasn’t having it. Men on 1st and 3rd with no outs? The answer is Marmol. He gets Tejada to pop out to short, strikes out Berkman, and Carlos Lee grounds to third to end the inning. Was it ever in doubt? Geez.

Cub first: Strange things are happening to the Cubs this season. Its the countdown to the 100th anniversary of their last World Series win. Its also the season that they snap that streak. So as we countdown to the 2008 World Champion Chicago Cubs victory party, let’s track historic Cub firsts…

(1) Soto is the first Cubs catcher to record an inside-the-park homer since Cal Neeman raced around the bases on June 17, 1959, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.*

*from cubs.com

Pirates @ Cubs, Game 44

Cubs 4, Pirates 3 WP: Marquis (2), LP: Dumatrait, SV: Wood (10)
Record: 27-17 (1st place)

Piniella: “When you get good pitching, you don’t need to hit nearly as much. That was a wonderful homestand for us.”

The Cubs finished a 10 game homestand today with an 8-2 record over that stretch. This game boiled down to being patient at the plate and getting the timely hits (and sac flies). Phil Dumatrait walked 7 Cubs in 4.2 innings. Jason Marquis walked 2 in 6 innings and gave up only 2 earned runs on 4 hits. He was not exactly dominant but did the job that a 5th starter needs to do by keeping the Cubs in the game and eating up innings.

The Cubs bullpen (with the exception of a shaky, but effective Howry) was filthy. However, so was the Pirates’ pen. It was not an easy win but the Cubs are a good team and they got it done. Today the offense cooled off a little bit and it was not exactly the Soriano show as it has been throughout this homestand.

Soriano won the NL player of the week going 21 for 40 with 7 home runs in the last ten games. He raised his batting average about 70 points so now he is just under the .300 mark, where he is expected to be. If you read the news articles, you’ll see lots of people talking about how Soriano is a “streaky” player. Obviously, we’ve just witnessed one hell of a hot streak. He put up 6 multi-hit games this past week!

So, since Soriano has been a Cub, how many multi-hit games has he shown up for and do they show any evidence of streakiness? In 165 games as a Cub, 60 of them have been multi-hit games!! Thats incredible! More than I expected… Lets look at it:

Apr 2007: 3 games (DL)
May 2007: 10 games
Jun 2007: 12 games
Jul 2007: 10 games
Aug 2007: 2 games (DL)
Sep 2007: 13 games
Apr 2008: 2 games (DL)
May 2008: 8 games (as of May 18th)

It looks like he is pretty consistently having good games to me. As long as he stays healthy of course. Maybe a lot of the shit he takes stems from the fact that his legs aren’t quite what they were before he came to Chicago. However, the evidence is clear that the man can still hit a baseball pretty well. A multi-hit game 36% of the time is pretty acceptable to me. Let’s keep him in the lead-off spot.

Pirates @ Cubs, Game 43

Pirates 7, Cubs 6 (L) LP: Zambrano, Marmol
Record: 26-17 (1st place)

Marmol: “I’m not perfect.”

My uncle asked me the other day, while I was watching the Cubs and Marmol walked a batter “Why aren’t you yelling at Marmol like you were at Howry?” I said, “Because the league isn’t hitting .360 against Marmol.”

It’s rare to see a bad outing from Marmol but thats what happened in the second game of this series against the Pirates. Unfortunately, it also lead to a Cubs loss. But Zambrano did not put up a quality start today either. He snapped a bat over his knee after striking out at a point in the game when the Cubs were up 4-2. Then he went out in the next inning (the 5th) and the Pirates scored 3 runs off of him.

It was a back-and-forth game due to Soriano’s ridiculous 5-for-5 day with two solo home runs. Soriano is the hottest hitter in baseball this week (Sorry Lance Berkman). We’ll look at his hitting more in-depth later.

For now, we’ll focus on Marmol. He has been just plain filthy since he came up to the bigs to stay last year with the Cubs. He was signed as a free agent in the 1999 amateur draft by the Cubs. He started as a catcher but was converted to a pitcher by 2003. After a few years in the minors as a starter (and 2006 with the dismal Cubs), he posted a 3.95 ERA and 1.02 WHIP at Iowa in 8 games in 2007 and was up to the big league club by May. Since then he has been lights out and is arguably the best relief pitcher in the major leagues today. But we all knew that, right?

So how many blemishes does he actually have on his track record with 335 batters faced in the 7th inning or later? (145 with runners on, 85 with RISP)*. Unfortunately these stats do not include post-season appearances and so the home run to Mark Reynolds in Game 2 of the 2007 NLDS should probably make this list as well. However, Marmol’s short career has been nothing short of outstanding and that is why he is allowed to walk the occasional batter and Bob Howry is not. If Marmol puts him on, chances are he will not be scoring.

*Stats are as of May 18, 2007

live – astros at cubs. game 88.

top 1st huge loser craig biggio flies to soriano to start the game. they are showing replay of his 3000th hit, like anyone cares. 3-0 now to hunter pence. if zambrano cant throw fucking strikes i want him off this team. i will not watch him walk six guys again and lose. and henter pence strikes out swinging. so there. 2-0 on lance berkman… hello?! quit falling behind, didnt you hear me! and there is the first walk of the game. FUCK! i HATE walks. thankfully carlos lee loves to strike out and does with a nice big wiiffff.

top 2nd jacque jones makes a catch in Cf for the first out. you may have noticed i listed him under “terrible” in the previous post. we’ll keep an eye on him today. mike lamb (yes he starts for the astros) strikes out looking on a full count. nice effort mike. luke scott is up (10 HR .220ish BA) there is one thing worse than watching zambrano throw balls: being an astros fan. strike out on a check swing. ok i take back what i might have said earlier. 2 of 3 against this team will not cut it, the cubs need to sweep.

bottom 2nd jones reaches on a bad throw by mark loretta. soto’s first AB now… jason jennings LOVES to throw to first. soto strikes out looking. pretty weaksauce. the cubs offense is welcome to show up to wrigley at any time.

live – cubs at nationals. game 82.

top 1st i like don sutton as a broadcaster. he knows pitching and he talks about each pitcher’s strengths and weaknesses and the types of pitches they throw. a lot of interesting discussion of pitching, which is maybe my favorite part of the game.

soriano lines a single into right on a 2-0 count. way to start it off. and soriano steals second on a high fastball. the catchers throw made one hop so sori just beat it. and then theriot slaps a single into center! soriano charges home and is safe easily on a not-so-good throw. 1-0 cubs. couldn’t have executed that better.

aramis is not playing today. he will have to rest every now and then and this is a good game for it with zambrano going against some guy, three years older than Z at 29, that the nationals just called up from AAA. and he wasn’t even really very good down there. he used to pitch for the astros too and he wasn’t that good. but lee, floyd, and derosa all go down and thats the end of that.

bottom 1st zambrano puts the nats down 1-2-3 with a little help from a couple of great defensive plays from theriot. the last out was a rocket ground ball from ryan zimmerman which he snagged on a bounce and threw over to first. man, they playing well, this is fun to watch.

bottom 2nd wow! fontenot just made an amazing catch in shallow center over his shoulder for the third out! there were two guys on so that probably saved two runs right there on a high pop out with two outs. that is good stuff.

top 3rd theriot just bunted with Z and sori on 2nd and 1st with no out. and they walked lee to load the bases so here is cliff floyd. and he whiffs at strike two. i wish i had more confidence in floyd. but i SHOULDNT doubt, because he lines it into center field for a base hit! 3-0 cubs as zambrano and soriano both come around to score.

its first and third now for derosa. and he walks. bases loaded one more time. fontenot doesnt have a hit in the 6 spot yet. how bout one here? full count… ah! the shortstop lopez jumps up and grabs a liner for the second out. dammit, and pagan makes the third out and the cubs leave the bases loaded. we havent been seeing that as much lately but damn i hate when it happens. especially with 1 out. oh well its 3-0…ok for now.

bottom 5th zambrano is in trouble after a lead-off walk and hitting the 8th batter robert fick. langerhans is up now with one out. its a full count and i am not in the mood for a zambrano meltdown. he walked him. looked like a decent pitch though on the outside of the plate. eh.

sac fly from belliard. 3-1 now. pretty weak, but its better than a hit. hopefully we dont see one from ryan zimmerman. don sutton is talking about how zambranos fastball tends to miss inside when he is stressed and sure enough thats what is happening in this at-bat. lots of cubs attire in those stands by the way. and he pops out to fontenot. way to make us sweat though zambrano. THERE WERE NO HITS IN THAT INNING! and they still scored a run.

bottom 7th zambrano gave the nationals free baserunner number 5 with his fourth walk of the night. that was with two outs so piniella brought in marmol. and of course he struck out ronnie belliard on three swinging strikes to get out of the inning. what that means for the pitching in the final two innings, i dont know. i’m not too excited about bob howry coming in for the save in the ninth but we’ll see what happens.

top 8th floyd walks to lead it off. thats the third walk issued by the nationals. felix pie is pinch running. shit, and derosa hits into a double play. that sucks. fontenot needs a hit. i’m starting to wonder if he shouldnt have been moved from the second spot. why doesnt he have a hit since then? he pops up it to left.

bottom 8th now marmol makes an error covering first on an amazing stop from derrek lee. but ryan church is on with two outs. and the rain looks like its coming down pretty hard over there in washington. and felipe lopez lines one right at felix pie in center. i dont know why, this is just a nail biter. the nationals cant hit but still! they have 3 hits and the cubs keep giving them baserunners. so far cliff floyd is the man of the day with his bases loaded single in third, but the cubs havent dont shit since then. they’ve threatened but have left 6 on base so far in this game. the nats have left 8.

bottom 9th schneider – fick – kearns, here we go. looks like will ohman is getting the call. man, i am nervous. this team cant even hit and i’m nervous.

ok and ohman gets schneider to ground to second. robert fick was hit by a pitch last time he came up. how bout no more of those mistakes? looked like ball two there was pretty damn close to strike three… foul ball… another foul… base hit. fuck! and its gonna be howry. really wish it was marmol.

ok can we get two outs please? BEFORE two runs? strike one. followed by two balls. come ON. fouls it back. and he strikes out on a high fastball. that is EXcellent. ryan langerhans though now, he is a pretty good hitter. fick takes second uncontested.

2-1 count again. he is JUST missing off the outside of the plate with these fastballs. strike two swinging… STRUCK HIM OUT! and… sigh of relief. that is beautiful. howry has to make my tag list after that two strikeout save. and i cant even remember the last time the cubs were two games over .500. that was really a nail-biter. early one tomorrow, lets hope the offense wakes up early.

fyi, the answer to my question from cubs.com (emphasis mine):

With the win, the Cubs are two games above .500 for the first time since May 3, 2006, when they were 14-12. They’re also 20-9 in the last 29 games, the best record in the Major Leagues for that stretch.

live – brewers at cubs. game 80.

top 1st a 1-2-3 inning for jason marquis! he made a great play on a shot up the middle off the broken bat of ryan braun. however, it looked like part of the bat hit him, he headed right into the clubhouse. so i hope he is ok…

bottom 1st marquis is back in the dugout so it looks like he is probably fine. theriot hit double that was just fair into the brewers bullpen. derrek lee followed up with a bloop single into left-center that wasnt sure to drop so theriot couldnt score. here is ramirez though.

and he rips a double into the hole in right center! theriot scores easily and lee gets waved around and scores on a late throw! 2-0 cubs! beautiful. fontenot is batting sixth today so here he comes after derosa strikes out. he rips a line drive into center but right at bill hall. cubs score 2 though, thats a good start. i like the movement of fontenot and theriot in the batting order. theriot has done well in the 2-hole this season. so has fontenot but i think fontenot might be able to have success at the 6th spot too. i think its a good move at least for one game.

top 2nd another 1-2-3 inning on some solid/routine plays from the defense. marquis is really good when he is on.

bottom 2nd fielder lets a grounder from koyie hill roll between his legs with one out. marquis strikes out so soriano gets a chance with 2 outs. soriano takes a swing for strike three that looked like me in little league swinging half-assed after the ball is already in the catcher’s mitt. wow that was weak.

top 3rd marquis strikes out geoff jenkins. then walks rickie weeks on four pitches. the pitcher bush bunts to advance the runner and marquis tosses over to theriot covering first. two out. back to the top of the order with hart. and he strikes out on a check swing at pitch low off the outside of the plate.

bottom 3rd and theriot rips another double this time down the left field line! this is the theriot i got used to seeing earlier in the season. and then derrek lee dumps it left field! theriot tries to score, the throw beat him to the plate and it looked like he was out but the ump called him safe, like he avoided the tag! 3-0 cubs. oh man, that was close. i dont know. i’ll take it though.

ramirez pops up just in front of the plate and its dropped by ryan braun! 1st and 3rd no outs! he just knocked it down with his glove and it rolled over towards the brewers dugout. and the derosa hits it back up the middle for a base hit! 4-0 cubs! yeah, this team can hit too. and here is fontenot. i love that we are down to the 6 spot and we’ve still got a hitter like fontenot. no outs still. he strikes out though. oh well.

pagan then to try to keep it going. ground out to fielder. 2 outs. shit, koyie hill hit it hard to right but corey hart was able to pull it down at the warning track. wind is blowing in today. 4-0 cubs, one-third of the way through.

top 4th looked like marquis might be in trouble for the first time with lead off hits from jj hardy and ryan braun. fielder hit a long drive into center but it didnt leave the park and pagan pulled it down and made a nice throw to second to keep braun from advancing. then marquis found his “lucky pitch” according to what albert pujols would say and got bill hall to hit into a double play to end the inning. fuck yeah.

“He got in trouble like normally, you know, he always gets in trouble, and finds a lucky pitch to make to get out of trouble, you know,” Cardinals start Albert Pujols said of Marquis (after the Cubs 6-0 win against the Cardinals 4/21/07)

pujols is a fag.

top 5th gross, geoff jenkins hit a 1 out triple. pagan makes some crazy fucking attempts out there in center. i wonder if pie wouldve played that better. anyway rickie weeks grounds to short and jenkins cant score. its up to the pitcher, bush, now to score him. nope strike out. one more time, fuck yeah.

top 6th corey hart leads off with solo HR. 4-1. at least thats because corey hart is good though, gross as he is. a geoff jenkins triple just should not happen. hardy pops out thats 1 down. braun grounds to second. 2 gone. and derrek lee makes another nice play at first to retire prince fielder. cubs still lead, how bout some offense now after two 1-2-3 bottom halves.

bottom 6th dave bush issues two one-out walks to pagan and hill. marquis bunts them over, two out. here is soriano’s chance to be the man again. shit, corey hart made a really nice catch sliding into foul territory. inning over.

top 7th whoo! marquis just got johnny estrada to chase a high fastball for strike three. that is beautiful, two out. bill hall struck out before him. and geoff jenkins flies out to soriano. money.

great, seventh inning stretch. good thing the sound went out on my mlb.tv about 4 innings ago. it usually comes in kinda choppy when i’m at home. but the sound went out and now the images are streaming faster it seems so i’m not messing with it. why cant it just be good quality? i pay for this shit.

bottom 7th whoo again!! ryan theriot rips his 3rd double of the game down the left field line again! and derrek lee follows it up again with another hit. huh, and ramirez ground into a double play but it scores the run. 5-1 cubs. don’t mind the insurance run at all. and derosa pops out. will marquis stay in?

top 8th nope its marmol, who strikes out rickie weeks for the first out. now huge loser craig counsell pops out behind the plate, koyie hill pulls it down, two outs. wow! and then corey hart strikes out swinging on three pitches! and for a third time, fuck yeah!

bottom 8th interesting, marmol comes up to bat after a 2 out koyie hill. and he grounds out to short on the first pitch. ok…i guess they want him to pitch the ninth then.

top 9th alright well its the heart of the brewer batting order. jj hardy to lead off. hardy hits a double off the glove of soriano. holy shit that was an error but they are calling it a double. shit. petrick is warming up now. petrick and howry.

holy crap, that was close. ryan braun flew out to right but derosa had to run back towards the corner and haul it in. hardy advances to third. YES. prince strikes out swinging. nice pitching marmol. he is really gaining confidence you can tell. two strikes now on bill hall…

OH YEAH!! strike three swinging! marmol throws his fist in the air! hahah, yes. that is sweet. two fucking wicked innings from marmol. seven REALLY solid innings from marquis. and the cubs take 2 of 3 from the first place brewers, make up one game up of ground and are back to .500 on the year. now to washington for 4 games against the nationals. man that is huge.

live – rockies at cubs. game 77.

top 3rd subway jared is talking to len and bob in the booth right now. i’m not listening since i’m at work so i can’t hear it but i’m sure not missing anything baseball-related. except of course when the camera goes inside the booth so i can see jareds face. like i havent seen enough of it. cubs are up 1-0, thats good. and jared is now leaving. better.

matsui strikes out. i bet he wishes he didnt suck so bad.

bottom 3rd some sullivan fool in CF robbed fontenot of a base hit. who does he think he is impressing? wannabe. and derrek lee walks so we’re on base again. aramis is apparently sitting out today. i think cliff floyd is having a career year this year. he is a hometown kid. thats why. that settles it. and cliff walks.

hirsh throws a ball to pagan for strike one. lame. and pagan strikes out looking at a ball just off the outside of the plate. whatever. 2 down, 2 on. so here is my hero mark derosa…

HOME RUN 4-0 cubs. suck it rockies. do i hear a sweep coming on?

top 4th yes, i think i might because zambrano looks like he is definitely on today. 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts. glad he started a “new season”. greg maddux can have michael barrett.

bottom 4th hello! fontenot hits a 2 out solo dinger. and apparently kaz matsui is afraid of the cubs (who wouldnt be?) as he makes his error of the year and of the series on a pop fly to let lee on base. too bad cliff floyd flies out to end it. 5-0 cubs.

top 7th we all know ryan dempster is on the DL. so we got billy petrick up from AA now and he pitched the top. 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts, one looking, the last swinging. love it. its feels like one of those years where people come out of nowhere and contribute. maybe its easy to say when you’re on a hot streak. 5-2 cubs now after zambrano got in trouble in the 6th.

bottom 7th fontenot leads off with his 3rd hit of the game, a double. and we are talking to george thorogood in the booth. so fucking retarded. i swear i will complain about this in every game i can. did you know that when you’re putting together an album of blues covers you want to select songs that not too many people have done before? keep that in mind. it might help us against the brew crew this weekend.

and fontenot scores on a sac fly from pagan. 6-2 cubs.

top 8th petrick, after getting 5 total outs, gave up a two run HR to garrett atkins. oh well, the kid gets a standing ovation anyway. 6-4 cubs. hopefully will ohman and perhaps bob howry will find it in their hearts to give us 4 more outs. theres one.

top 9th after an uneventful bottom 8, carlos marmol is getting the call to close this game out. if it works, i think the kid may have a future in closing. if it doesnt work, well let’s just say i will be pissed.

marmol pitching to young troy whats-his-face. struck him out looking.

and then torrealba strikes out looking for 2 outs. you might want to try swinging at strikes if you want to come back.

1-2 on spilborgs. and he grounds out to fontenot for out number 3. thanks for coming out rockies. marmol, you are the man. i shouldnt have doubted you even for a second. and theres that 6 game win streak i needed. i now have no problem saying this is a good team. especially when people like jones and scott eyre play as little as possible.

now to have a shot at winning the NL central the cubs need to take at least 2 of 3 from the brewers this weekend. frankly i won’t be that impressed with the wild card, the way this team is capable of playing. however, i will take it if it gets the cubs to the postseason.