The Cubs sure can as they ran into exactly that when facing Roy Oswalt today. It’s good to be back writing recaps now. I’ve switched jobs this summer, which has caused me to have a lot less time to write during the season. With this year being a magical one, I’ve recommitted myself to the site and should be set to recap games whether in written or audio format down the stretch. Here were some notes from the game today.
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Jason Marquis pitched decent today, but did get himself into a bit of trouble in the 5th inning. At that point, after getting out of it with the called strikeout, I felt it was time to pull the plug for the 6th inning. Lou stuck with him, despite the 94 pitches he had thrown to that point and Jason rewarded the confidence with a three up three down inning that featured two strikeouts. He finished with a quality start, which comes on the heels of a very nice outing on August 27th. He’s done a good job for this team despite the lack of confidence people, myself included, have in him this year and last. Ideally it would’ve been nice to pick up a win, but you really can’t complain when you get a quality outing from the back end of the rotation. It’s not his fault that the offense has been struggling of late.
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With that struggling in mind, the offense has now gone into an extra base drought that dates back to Friday. You’re not going to win a lot of games like that and it’s not a coincidence that the Cubs have gone 0-3 in that stretch. The rest of the series features some easier matchups in Brandon Backe and Randy Wolf, who was acquired via trade before the deadline for some strange reason. Hopefully with those matchups, the offense can bust out and pick up some extra base hits.
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Lou brought Jeff Samardzija out in the 8th inning after a good 7th inning and he paid the price as a result. I’m personally not a big fan of bringing the late inning guys out for a second inning of work for the simple fact that I think it exposes the limited pitch repertoire most possess. One of the things that make the pen guys so effective in the late innings is that they have one or at most two plus pitches, but little else. When you get a couple good looks at those pitches, it’s easier to make adjustments and get to them. Keep guys like Samardzija, Carlos Marmol, and Kerry Wood in there for no more than an inning. At the same time, I’m fine with longer or middle inning type guys like Michael Wuertz pitching multiple innings, especially in less than competitive situations.
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The Kosuke Fukudome benching watch continues. Coming into the game today, Fukudome was hitting .236 / .343 / .309 since the August 11th warning by Lou Piniella. It’s not that big a deal right now, with the team leading the division, but what happens if he continues to struggle as we get to the playoffs? When do we make the change for the stretch run, and does it bother you that there really isn’t a clear cut RF option other than him? Mark DeRosa isn’t a natural RF and to have him out there consistently weakens the defense. Looking at the 40 man roster, the only other options are Reed Johnson, Felix Pie, or Sam Fuld. Considering Fuld is probably not going to be recalled and Felix Pie has struggled every time he’s been up, it’s up to Reed to be the guy if Lou is willing to try him there. My guess is that Lou will continue to let Fukudome try to play himself out of the funk. He didn’t do it today and I’m beginning to lose faith that he will this season.
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I knew DeRosa had a bit of a hot streak going of late, but what I hadn’t realized was just how good his month of August was. He was 4th in the NL in RBI with 24, 5th in OPS with 1.181 and 2nd in runs with 25. I’d love to see him win the NL player of the month for August. And to think, some people actually felt his three year, $13 million deal was a bit of a reach. Now his salary in 2008 ($4.75M) looks like a bit of a bargain on the part of Jim Hendry, don’tcha think?
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Has it really been 11 years of guest singers for the 7th inning stretch? Man, it just doesn’t feel like that long since Harry died. I miss him, but I love the way Len and Bob call a game.
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Speaking of Harry, the TV crew had a shot in the 3rd that would’ve made Harry proud. With the temperatures reaching into the upper 80’s, a female fan popped up on the screen in a white tank top fanning her upper torso with a mist fan. Then again, maybe it wasn’t a bad thing Harry didn’t see that.
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Just to let you know, Casey McGehee’s name is pronounced McGee.
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Carrie Muskat mentioned on Cubs.com that Koyie Hill has come back this year from having his fingers cut off in the off-season. I had no idea that this injury happened. The article mentioned that The accident happened on what began as a normal offseason day at Hill’s Wichita, Kans., home. He was using a table saw to build a window frame, something he’d done millions of times. His father is a master carpenter, and Hill has dreamed of being an architect. He’s designed floor plans, homes. But when he made a second pass, the saw got stuck on a knot in the wood and it severed all but the index finger on his right hand, and that one suffered minor damage. ‘It cut my thumb off first,” Hill said Monday. “It went through all the muscles of my thumb. It cut all four fingers and all four ligaments.’”. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain. I feel bad that I talked bad about him earlier in the year. Props to him for coming back in a big way this year.
Len and Bob talked about Koyie’s injury as well during the broadcast. Much props to Koyie for dedicating himself to getting back to the game after such a nasty injury.
Yesterday’s game was a total bore. You almost knew it wasn’t going to be a win, there just seemed like the whole place was lacking energy.
I don’t know. I was into the game yesterday. I felt like we were going to rally late.
Weird. I never had that feeling at all.
I think the Cubs are primed for a little slip here. It’s about time for a struggle.
Thats great the Koyie Hill has made that stunning comeback, but how exactly does he play catcher and hit with just the one finger? Does he just pretend the fingers are still there? Pretty impressive!
I was at the game yesterday. The heart of order (2-6) goes 0 for 19. Marquis pitched fine, but got nothing from his offense. Soto’s error was dumb — seemed like a little league-type error. Has anybody ever seen that freak triple by Tejada ever happen, where it banks off the fence so hard that it rolls clear into the Cubs bullpen area?! That was crazy. Glad to see Wuertz could be plugged right back in and be of good help.
Oswalt was dang good. And we were one or two hits from actually winning.
^ Joe should of clarified. They managed to re-attach all his fingers.
Per the article, Koyie will likely have 2 of them removed though when his playing days are over, because of arthritis/pain. WOW.
It’s strange that he had a career year after that injury with the bat.
Given what happened to Hill, isn’t this title a little bad? Just asking.
I agree about having relivers go longer than one inning. Unless the guy is plowing through hitters and on a roll. Most relievers have two, MAYBE three, good pitches to work with. I’d rather had seen Leiber out there.
Finally!!! I was waiting for someone to catch the double meaning of my title. Well done sir!!! I was getting impatient, but didn’t want to say anything.
You are so sneaky.