First Star: Garrett Jones (.139 WPA)
Second Star: Evan Meek (.129 WPA)
Third Star: Charlie Morton (.115 WPA)
Ted Lilly didn’t look terrible tonight, but he never really seemed to get in a groove and settle in. He got hit real hard in the 3rd, giving up three straight doubles to begin the frame followed by a rocket line drive out to Ramirez. All four balls we hit right on the button and I started to wonder if he’d get through the inning. He did get through 6 innings with much less than his best stuff and for that you’ve got to give him credit. What we need to keep in mind when it comes to Lilly for the next few starts is the fact that for him, it’s still spring training. We forget how little he threw in March while rehabbing from injury. Coming into the game, his fastball was averaging 85 mph as compared to his usual 87 or 88 mph average. He hit upper 80′s tonight, but I’m guessing we’ll see that creep closer to the norm as the season wears on. I’m going to give him a pass for a few more starts as he works on getting back fully into game shape when it comes to his stuff and his command.
Watching Lilly pitch for us over the last few years always reminds me of how fun it is to watch a pitcher that knows how to pitch as opposed to those who just know how to throw smoke. It got me thinking of what my rotation would be if I could choose one of five guys that pitch smart to get guys out and one of guys who just look for the K’s. If we keep it just to former Cubs that have played fairly recently, I’d go with the following for the command staff:
- Greg Maddux
- Jamie Moyer
- Ted Lilly
- Jon Lieber
- Kevin Tapani
For the John Daly ‘grip it and rip it’ staff, we’ll go with:
- Kerry Wood
- Rich Harden
- Kyle Farnsworth (wasn’t much a SP, but I’m reaching here)
- Jason Bere
- Calvin Shiraldi
I tend to really like watching the command guys pitch, but it is fun to watch a guy like Wood or Harden go out and strike out 10+ in an outing. It’s like watching a little league pitcher that’s head and shoulders above the other kids and simply makes them look terrible.
Back to the game tonight and more specifically, Lilly’s outing, he found himself having a ball called when he went to his mouth without wiping. It’s a recent rule change that allows pitchers to go to the mouth on the mound as long as they wipe before going to the baseball. Ted went to the mouth and promptly put his hand in his glove. The home plate umpire, watching intently the entire time immediately called the ball. What makes me laugh about the rule is a) how easy it seems to get around it, and b) how useful it can be. Pitchers want a wet baseball to give them a better grip, which translates to more movement. Obviously the umps are watching the pitchers go to the mouth. Why can he go to the forehead instead? Sweat seems like it would work just as effectively as saliva. Also, why not wet part of the jersey while in the dugout between innings? Perhaps a quick throw to first base, which would allow the first basemen to have pre-wet fingers to rub up the ball a little. It just seems like it could be fairly easy to use moisture on the ball without going to the mouth on the mound. As far as using the rule to your advantage, Bob Brenly mentioned that instead of throwing four intentional balls to walk a hitter, why couldn’t a pitcher just go to his mouth four straight times? Makes sense to me. I’d love to see how an ump handled that in the event a pitcher was clever enough to try it.
Overall, another loss that not only drops us to two under .500, but also assures that the friggin’ Pirates win this series. We putz around in the homestand and barely pulled out a winning homestand. Now we’re putzing out of the gate on the road trip and will need to play hot as fire against the Reds if we want to win this road trip. Not what I expected to see. I don’t know what to make of this offense. We’re not a bad offense. We just see either a lot of runs or virtually no runs. It’s got to start being consistent runs if we’re going to win a consistent amount of games. We’ll try it again tomorrow and scrape out a win.
Chet West checks in with this recount:
In what was sort of a bizarre night at PNC park, the Cubs offense had another slow evening at the plate as they dropped their second game in a row to the lowly Pirates by a score of 4-2. Ted Lilly and the relief staff combined to give the squad a chance by holding the Bucs to 4 runs. Pirate pitcher Charlie Morton and his 12.50 ERA/0-5 record coming into tonight’s affair stymied the Cubs bats to claim the series win and inch one more step towards a sweep.
The Good
Cubs Defense: Aramis Ramirez’s glove is still working even though his bat appears broken. He snared two scorched line drives off Pirate bats that would have caused some damage. Fukudome also made a nice catch on a shallow fly ball in the first inning during the Pirates opening rally and followed it with a nice throw to home holding the speedster Andrew McCutcheon on third.
Cubs Pitching: Once again Cubs pitching wasn’t given a chance. Lilly seemed to battle with control all night but still kept the Cubs in the game. He was not able to throw the curve as effectively, and he wasn’t spotting his fastball like he can. Even below his normal standards he gave the team a chance and turned in a decent outing. The Carlos’s turned in a fine effort this evening in relief. Zambrano got the benefit of a beautiful strike em out -throw em out double play to end the seventh. Marmol came on in the eighth and looked unhittable striking out McCutcheon on a slider the was literally two feet off the plate.
The Bad
Cubs Hitting: The Jekyll and Hyde act continues! Sometimes a teams offense and defense takes time to find its identity. This offense has the ability to completely change faces from one series to the next.
Aramis was moved to sixth in the order and managed a hit and a sac fly in the process. While he seemed tentative and less then confident at the plate, this was improvement. Sometimes his body language looked as if he just couldn’t go through with it.
The bigger issue was the lack of a contribution made by Theriot and Fukudome at the top. They went 0 for the night. Throw in a rather pedestrian night by the rest of the lineup, which did not record a hit until the fourth inning, and you have a rather boring evening at the dish for our cubbies.
If we went up against Lincecum or Cliff Lee tonight my outlook would be different but the guy had a 12.56 ERA upon entering the game and an 0-5 record……we made him look like Cy Young.
The Wierd
In the second inning Ted Lilly had a ball called on him for licking his fingers and going to the glove without wiping his hand. Honestly, how can an umpire be certain that a pitcher is actually wiping his wet finger if and when he does lick and wipe like the rules require? Pitchers have mastered so many ways to alter a ball one can’t imagine this falls in the advanced category.
The Pirates managed to hit into two double plays tonight……the weird part is that neither one of the hits causing the Double Play made it past the dirt in front of home plate. The stranger part was that neither runner ran to first , or at least in a timely matter, as they both assumed they had hit foul balls. The absolute strangest part….the Cubs still lost!
Maybe Tomorrow……
After the Arizona series I was hoping for 4 wins on this trip. Even against two of the weaker teams in the National League I am not sure we can salvage a .500 road trip at this point. It will all depend on our bats, we will just have to wait and see which offense shows up to play.
