Saturday Afternoon Fever

Winning two of three versus the White Sox wasn’t a bad weekend for the Cubbies. Friday’s game was electric, and the seventh inning comeback led by Angel Pagan (who is much more qualified than Jacque Jones to be the teams center-fielder), was quite a memorable moment. The crowd was living and dieing with every pitch and after the passed ball that allowed Pagan to score the go-ahead run Wrigley was going absolutely crazy. The bullpen tossing perfect eight and ninth innings was nice to see as well.

Saturday’s game, from everything I read and heard (I was not there, I was in Boston for my brother’s college graduation…congrats Ben) was one for the vault. It was 75 degrees and sunny, the wind was blowing out and I’m sure that the crowd was amazing. And then the game started. Runs were not too hard to come by, with each team scoring five runs in the first six innings. But it was the eighth that elevated this game from a fun time to ESPN Classic. In the White Sox frame, slugger Paul Konerko took former Sox pitcher Bob Howry deep to give the South Siders the lead, 6-5. The way the Cubs have been hitting at the end of games this season, the signs of a comeback looked poor. But the Cubs immediately struck back. In the bottom of the frame, against former Cub David Aardsma, Ryan The Riot led off with a triple, followed by an Alfonso Soriano single and an Aramis Ramirez triple, giving the Cubs the lead. Then the fun really started. With Ramirez on third, Daryl Ward was walked and Michael Barrett got an infield hit to load the bases for Jones. Anyone who has watched baseball knows that a career .250 hitter with the bases loaded is not who should be up in the eighth inning of a pressure-filled one run game. And since Lou Piniella has watched baseball before, he made a move. With the White Sox brining in left handed pitcher Boone Logan to face the lefty Jones, Sweet Lou inserted injured slugger Derek Lee, a man who earlier in the day Piniella said was out for the series, to hit. After a couple of ugly swings, D-Lee finally connected on one of Logan’s pitches, taking it out to the right field basket. The grand slam broke the game open, left the Wrigley crowd thinking they had seen the second-coming of Kirk Gibson at the ‘88 World Series.

The only problem with the weekend was Sunday’s performance by the starting pitcher, Carlos Zambrano, as well as the bullpen. Big Z has been inconsistent all year long, and I believe it has to do with his contract extension being put on hold because of the team being put up for sale. I don’t understand why they can’t just sign the five year, $85 million extension the team and Zambrano agreed to on opening day. In my opinion, that makes the team more valuable to a potential buyer, but obviously, I don’t know all the details. The team needs him to turn it around, because it’s not clear if Rich Hill, Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis can pitch at their current level all season long. It won’t matter how the starters do though if the bullpen doesn’t start to improve. Supposedly Piniella’s plan is to move Angel Guzman to the bullpen, call up Carlos Marmol to join him there and bring Sean Marshall to be the fifth starter. (Neal Cotts will be sent to AAA) While it can’t be worse than how the pen has been pitching now, I’m not sure how this will help the club. Guzamn, Marmol and Marshall were all key contributors to last seasons last place team and aren’t considered to be future All-Stars. They might be helpful, but the key will be Scott Eyre, Howry and Ryan Dempster performing in the eighth and ninth innings if this team wants their games in August and September to mean anything.


Tomorrow I will cover the Bulls loss last week and preview the NBA draf