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Some things never change

Ever wonder why the Cubs haven’t won a world series in 100 years? If so, do yourself a favor and go watch the replay of last night’s Cubs/Dodgers game. We’ll start with the 8th inning. Bobby Scales works a fantastic at-bat, turning an 0-2 hole into a full count and eventually depositing the ball into the LF bleachers for his 2nd major league homerun, pulling the Cubs to within a run. Enter Ramon Trancoso. Jake Fox hammers a single back up the middle, nearly taking off Trancoso’s head. Scales and Fox look like the Cubs’ best hitters right now. Kosuke Fukudome does his thing and draws a walk. The job of your all-star player here is to at least drive in the tying run, and he’s at the dish. Instead, Alfonso Soriano takes a fastball right down the pipe and flails away at 2 breaking balls no where near the plate. Ryan Theriot follows by promptly chasing the first pitch and hitting into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

Skip ahead to the bottom of the 9th. This is where good teams take advantage: Dodgers closer Jonathon Broxton was unavailable due to a long outing the previous night so Trancoso, who the Cubs hit pretty hard in the 8th, stayed in. Milton Bradley and Derrek Lee hit back to back singles, and Reed Johnson moves them over on a weak ground out. An intentional walk to Geovany Soto loads the bases. Here is the defining moment. ANY…. and I mean ANY other team in major league baseball wins this game at home, or at least ties it. Heck, if it were against the Cubs, they’d probably lose 6-2, walking in the tying run and surrendering a grand slam to a .189 utility infielder. And it doesn’t matter that Carlos Marmol would be on the mound, or that the wind is blowing in at 30 MPH, or that this fella has never hit a major league homerun, it’s just the way the Cubs are. So Bobby Scales and Jake Fox, who just an inning ago looked like the best hitters on the team, both chase breaking balls out of the zone and fail to even make contact. Cubs lose 2-1. Its moments such as these that remind us as Cubs fans why this team hasn’t won a world series since 1908 and until they start winning these types of games, the wait will continue.

Mike

Lack of big hits hurt Cubs in 2-1 loss

The Cubs and Dodgers kicked off a big four game series at Wrigley Field on Thursday night and once again it was the Cubs that were unable to come up with a big hit as they lost 2-1. The team had plenty of chances in the game to score runs however they left 23 base runners on base including the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning. If this team wants to start winning these close games, they need to score with the bases loaded and stop wasting the opportunities.

The one run that the team did score was in the eighth inning when pitcher hitter Bobby Scales hit a solo home run. However Scales would strikeout with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth and than he was followed by Jake Fox who also struck out to end the game. Scales was called back up to the team before the game when Ryan Freel was put on the disabled list with a hurt hamstring.

Derrek Lee led the Cubs at the plate with two hits.

It was another tough loss for Randy Wells on the mound. Wells didn’t pitch bad in his seven innings of action even though he did give up eight hits. The Dodgers scored on a infield bunt single in the first inning and then on a infield groundout in the third inning.

The Cubs will look to tie up the series at one game each on Friday afternoon. Ted Lilly will get the start for Cubs and he will face off against Chad Billingsley of the Dodgers.

** Carlos Zambrano was also suspended for six games by the league for his tirade on Wednesday afternoon. Zambrano said that he will not appeal the suspension**

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Zambrano ejected but Cubs win 5-2

Carlos Zambrano was ejected in the seventh inning but that did not stop the Cubs from beating the Pirates for the second straight game. Zambrano went nuts in the seventh inning when he thought he tagged out Nyjer Morgan at home plate after he threw a wild pitch. Big Z went wild in a ball-tossing, bat-swinging tirade after being ejected with the score 2-2. With Zambrano bumping the umpire during his tirade, he will probably also be suspended and could possibly miss a start.

The offense and bullpen had Zambrano’s back however as they came right back and scored three runs in the eighth inning and then held off the Pirates to secure the 5-2 victory. The big eighth inning was fueled by a go ahead home run from Reed Johnson and rbi doubles from Andres Blanco and Jake Fox. Blanco and Fox were just called up before the game and they made their precense known right away at Wrigley Field.

Other than the three runs in the eighth inning, the two other runs came in the first inning when Milton Bradley hit a rbi triple to score Ryan Theriot which was than followed by a fielders choice off the bat of Johnson. The Cubs should not have scored the second run in the inning but the Pirates made a costly error on the throw to first when they were trying to turn a double play.

Back to Zambrano who tossed 6 1/3 innings. Zambrano was pretty good on the day even though he allowed seven hits. Off those seven hits, the Pirates only scored two runs however. Six strikeouts helped Zambrano out considering he also walked three batters in just over six innings of action.

The bullpen wasn’t lights out but they got the job when they needed too. Angel Guzman recorded the final two outs in the seventh inning when Zambrano was ejected and than Carlos Marmol made his return to the team with a scoreless inning in the eighth inning. Marmol ended up picking up the victory and is now 1-1 on the season. Up and down closer Kevin Gregg, walked two but did not allow the Bucs to score as he notched his seventh save of the season.

It wasn’t a pretty win but I’ll take it. Up next for the Cubs is a huge four game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Currently the Cubs are four games out of first place and they just need to keep on winning. Let’s see if the Zambrano tirade will spark the team similar to when he and Michael Barrett went at it in the teams dugout back in the 2007 season.

AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast

Jake Fox to be called up Wednesday

Bruce Miles from the Daily Herald blogged this morning that we can expect Jake Fox to be called up before today’s game. One of two moves is expected to happen before game time as well with Aaron Miles going on the disabled list with a sore shoulder or Neal Cotts being sent down to Triple A Iowa.

Fox has had a good start down at Iowa where he has a .423 batting average; 17 homers; 50 RBI; .503 OBP; .886 slugging percentage; 1.389 OPS.

I like Fox on the roster as he would provide some pop from the plate. Unlike Miles and Bobby Scales. It would surprise me one bit if we seen Fox in the starting lineup this afternoon when the Cubs and Pirates finish up their three game series.

Speaking of the series against the Pirates. I didn’t blog about the rain shortened game last night because it was my birthday and I stopped watching the game once the tarp came out onto the field. I will have a post this afternoon after the game however and hopefully it will be talking about the second straight win for the Cubs!

**Updated 10:27 CT**

Well that sure didn’t take to long after I put this post up. The Cubs officially announced that Jake Fox, Andres Blanco and Jason Waddell were all called up from Triple A Iowa. To make room on the roster for them, Aaron Miles was sent to the disabled list, Neal Cotts and Bobby Scales were both sent down to Triple A.

Sounds to me like we are replacing one utility infielder with another one in Blanco. Waddell will take Cott’s spot in the pen. I wonder if Scales was sent down due to his illness or due to his play?