Cubs sweep Pirates but is it too late?

The Cubs finished off the Pirates in a three game series on Wednesday as the two played an early morning game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Carlos Zambrano pitched six innings to lead the Cubs on the mound as he picked up his first victory since July 22. The Cubs offense stayed hot in the 8-5 victory but are the bats heating up just a little bit to late into the seaason?

Zambrano struck out eight and gave up five hits before being pulled after throwing 98 pitches. Big Z was not happy with coming out of the game and he let Lou know about it as he walked back into the dugout. As Zambrano walked back to the dugout, replays showed Lou just smiling as he waiting on the mound for John Grabow to enter the game.

Grabow, and Carlos Marmol both threw scoreless inning and Marmol picked up the save which was his 11th of the season. Marmol sure is showing the team that he wants that spot full time in 2010. One bullpen guy did not have a good game and that was Kevin Gregg again. Gregg was taken deep for a three run home run by former Cub Ronny Cedeno. Gregg, it was nice knowing you, (not really) but your time as a Cub should and will hopefully be over after this season.

Micah Hoffpauir hit a solo home run and also had a sac fly as he finished the game with two rbi. Catcher Koyie Hill also knocked in a pair of runs with a rbi single. The offense really swung the bats good in Pittsburgh. Hopefully the off day on Thursday won’t throw them off stride.

The Cubs will begin a weekend series with the Cincinatti Reds on Friday. Need to keep on winning if they want any shot at making the wildcard. I know it is a very small shot, but who knows what can happen.

- Cliff

“Untuck ‘em”: Fielder’s antics lead classless Brewcrew

The Giants and Brewers were tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th. Prince Fielder was at the dish, and then this scene ensued:

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6511913

As if the Brewers jersey untucking after wins wasn’t enough of a joke. Listen, I am all for a little bit of cockiness in baseball. Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano certainly do their part, but Prince took it to a whole new level last night. One thing I admire about baseball over any other professional sport is just that, it’s professionalism among their athletes. Sure, we have the never-ending steroid saga, but you rarely hear about players choking their girlfriends/wives, getting arrested for DUIs (insert Tony LaRussa joke here), dog-fighting (I don’t need a link), or any of that other garbage that goes in the NFL. The NBA isn’t very professional either – take a look at Kobe Bryant’s past or this photo of Allen Iverson. The NHL has guys like Sean Avery. Similar stuff happens in baseball, but you definitely don’t hear about it as much – and it doesn’t create month long feature blocks on SportsCenter. I know what Fielder did wasn’t anything as profound as any of the incidents I just referred to, but it’s a clear example of a non-professional. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference to me, but it’s not like the Brewers moved into first place with that win – in fact, they are 11 games out of any playoff contention at all. Had they been in the heat of a pennant race, perhaps Prince’s actions are justified a bit more, to some.

Fielder’s Brewer teammate, Ryan Braun is just as guilty of this stuff, just look at his parade around the bases last September in a game against the Cubs. [Cub fan bias]Someone should have told him Bob Howry was on the mound and that C.C. Sabathia wasn’t gonna be able to pitch every game of the NLDS.[/Cub fan bias] They learned that soon enough anyway, I suppose. Fielder’s antics are reminiscent of an NFL endzone celebration, something that their league is trying to restrict, and certainly, baseball doesn’t need that garbage either. Lets not just dismiss the fact that this isn’t Fielder’s first act of havoc this season. Remember his trip into the Dodgers’ clubhouse after they were blown out in L.A.? Perhaps that is a whole other blog entry though.

So before you tell me that Fielder’s antics were equal to every other act of cockiness in the league, find me another photo in the history of baseball with anything resembling this scene at home plate and I’ll take it all back:

Didn’t think so. Sure, Soriano waves his hand in front of his face (which is really just more stupid than anything else), Zambrano is basically the definition of cocky, but this hurts him more than helps most of the time, and Aramis admires his home runs (him and also Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, and a lot of other great sluggers throughout baseball history), but they don’t do what Fielder did. Some of the Giants players publicly spoke out against the charade, and some Angels players even are speaking out about it. It’s good to know that players of other teams don’t approve. Maybe it’s just immaturity; it’s easy to forget Prince is only in his 3rd full MLB season, so hopefully sooner or lately he’ll learn. Hopefully he deservedly gets one in the backside whenever the Brewers and Giants hook up again – and if he decides to charge the San Francisco clubhouse this time, there’s probably no hope left for him anyway.

Mike

No offense and terrible defense hurt Cubs in 5-0 loss

It was a pretty disappointing game for the Cubs on Thursday as they played a makeup game against the White Sox. It was such a bad game I didn’t even want to watch the end of it but I sat there anyways for some reason. I still don’t why to be honest.

Alfonso Soriano once again misplayed a fly ball which accounted for a three base error and allowed the White Sox to score. Before that play in the eighth inning, the Cubs were right there in it as it was only a 1-0 ballgame. Soriano man, come on!

The tough luck loser was Ryan Dempster who threw a great game. He didn’t call Soriano out in his press conference as he said we are a 25 man team and we just have to keep on going out there and playing. Soriano should be the one up there saying my fault, I totally messed up once again. Maybe I would be better to sit on the bench and let Jake Fox or Sam Fuld play left field.

It looks like the Rockies are going to lose this afternoon as well so the Cubs could have picked up a full game had they been able to hit the damn ball and catch a fly ball. Is it to early to ask “Can this season just be over?”

- Cliff

Lilly goes eight strong and Lee homers in Cubs 2-0 win

Wahoo, two wins in a row for the Chicago Cubs over the Houston Astros! The offense didn’t have their bats swinging on Wednesday afternoon but starting pitcher Ted Lilly was there to pick them up as he threw eight strong innings to pick up his tenth win of the season. The 2-0 victory over the Astros gave the Cubs two out of three games in the three game set.

Lilly was dominate on the mound as he did not walk a batter and only allowed four hits on the day. A great start by the crafty left hander who had the Astros guessing at the plate the entire afternoon. In his last four games, Lilly has given up four earned runs over 27 1/3 innings, it was about time he got a victory to show for it.

Carlos Marmol pitched the ninth inning to pick up the save.

The one hit that mattered for the Cubs was Derrek Lee’s two-run home run blast in the the fourth inning off of Felipe Paulino who took the loss for the Astros. Lee now has 27 home runs and 90 rbi on the season. Just think how much worse the Cubs season would be if Lee wasn’t hitting the ball as good as he has.

Now let’s sit back this evening and hope that the Giants and Rockies lose. The Braves an Marlins continue their series so the Cubs will pick up a little ground on one of them tonight.

- Cliff