May 14th, 2008 - CHICAGO — The Chicago Cubs today signed outfielder Jim Edmonds to a 2008 contract
Let’s be honest: Who didn’t think Jim Edmonds was done? He was a washed up Cub killer that was going to continue to kill the Cubs, but this time, in a Cubs uniform. For the first week and a half or so, it looked like we were all going to be right. Edmonds picked up only 3 hits (all singles) in his first 24 at-bats as a Cub. (8 games) Then came May 30th - maybe the most memorable game of the season to date, the Cubs 10-9 come from behind win vs. The Rockies. Edmonds went 3-4 with 3 RBI, and his first Cubs homerun. He had at least won over Cubs fans for one day.
Combined with an adjusted batting approach and a bit more confidence, Edmonds went on a tear. Edmonds went on to hit .319 in June with 6 HRs, 6 times the total he hit in his abbreviated San Diego Padres career. Slowly but surely, Edmonds began to look like the player he was with St. Louis, haunting the Cubs time and time again with his opposite field bombs and diving catches, only this time, he was helping them. What has made the Edmonds pickup so key is that his hits always seem to mean something throughout the course of a ballgame. His game tying blast against Atlanta on throwback day at Wrigley, his 2 homeruns in an inning during the Crosstown Classic, and his grandslam yesterday to finish off the sweep of the Brewers come to mind for instance.
Although a bothersome knee has kept Edmonds out of the lineup for a few stretches this season, Reed Johnson has filled in admirably in a platoon/fill-in role. There’s no doubt that this year’s Edmonds/Johnson centerfield duo has already outperformed the Felix Pie/Jacque Jones mess of 2007 both offensively and in the field. So Jim Hendry did it once again. He’s sometimes seen as a guy that never makes the right moves, but it seems he picked a winner with Jim Edmonds. Did he build the ultimate winner in the 2008 Chicago Cubs? Stay tuned.
Wow! The Chicago Cubs beat up on the Milwaukee Brewers once again and completed a four game sweep of the Brewers up in Milwaukee. The Cubs got great pitching from Rich Harden and great hitting in the game as they won 11-4. The Cubs are now five games up on the Brewers in the division!
Harden threw seven innings to get his first win with the Cubs. Harden allowed six hits and one run while striking out nine batters. His only mistake was to Prince Fielder who hit a solo home run in the seventh inning. Other then that one mistake, Harden was wheeling and dealing all game long. Bob Howry tossed a scoreless inning in the eighth inning and then Scott Eyre was charged with three runs in the ninth inning. Yeah you read that right, Howry threw a scoreless inning! Eyre continues to struggle as he just isn’t getting used that much anymore. He needs to get into a good rythum but I don’t think Lou has very much confidence in him right now.
The offense was led by Jim Edmonds who had two home runs and five rbi. Edmonds first hit a solo home run in the third inning, and then added a grand slam in the fourth inning. Kosuke Fukudome added a two run home run while Alfonso Soriano also had a solo shot. Mike Fontenot had two rbi in a pitch hitters role and Aramis Ramirez added a rbi as well.
Overall it was a great series for the Cubs as they pretty much crushed the brew crew in every game. The Cubs will now welcome the Pittsburgh Pirates into town for a afternoon game on Friday. Hopefully the Cubs keep playing good and we can get another sweep and extend the lead in the division!
Yeah baby! The Cubs beat down the Brewers once again and are now four games up on the brew crew in the division. It was a 7-2 beating of the Brewers on Wednesday night for the Cubs that have them in position to sweep on Thursday. And yeah, I like their chances to complete the sweep with Rich Harden taking the mound.
The Cubs got a great pitching performance from Ryan Dempster who threw seven innings and only allowed five hits and only one run. Dempster is now 12-4 on the year and has been throwing the ball very well. Chad Gaudin pitched a scoreless eighth inning and then Neal Cotts pitched the ninth and gave up a solo home run to Prince Fielder. The run didn’t mean anything however as the Cubs had a huge lead.
Alfonso Soriano was a monster at the plate for the Cubs as he was on base five times and collected three singles in the game. Ryan Theriot had a great game as well as he finished 3-3 with three rbi. Derrek Lee, Reed Johnson, and Mark Derosa all had one rbi each in the game as well.
Now lets root for another Cubs victory on Thursday afternoon as Rich Harden takes the mound. Expect Sean Marshall to come into the game if Harden has any troubles.
It was another great game for the Cubs offense as they hammered Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Ben Sheets and went on to beat the Brew Crew by the score of 7-1. The Cubs offense had 15 hits and scored seven runs while the Brewers struggled against Cubs ace Carlos Zambrano and did not score a run until the ninth inning.
Every Cubs batter had atleast one hit as everyone contributed on Tuesday night. The team had seven straight hits to open the sixth inning and they blew the game open by sending ten batters to the plate and scoring five runs in the inning.
Kosuke Fukdome and Mark DeRosa led the team with two rbi each. Aramis Ramirez went 4-5 with three doubles and also had one rbi. Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano had the other two rbi for the team. It was awesome to see so much production out of the lineup. A-Ram was locked in at the plate all night long and had some great swings which was nice to see as well.
Big Z threw eight scoreless innings while striking out a season high nine batters to get the win. Zambrano is now 12-4 on the year with a 2.80 era. Big Z did show some emotion in the game when he popped up a sac bunt attempt and then broke the bat over his leg. Atleast he wasn’t getting to hot headed out there on the mound.
Jeff Samardzija came in and pitched the ninth inning and gave up one run. He was mostly throwing fastballs and just letting the Brewers hit it. I don’t have a problem with that one run scoring because the Cubs had such a big lead and with a big lead all you can ask the pitcher to do was throw strikes and that was what he was doing.
The Cubs are now up three games on the Brewers and and four games on the Cardinals in the division. Let’s all sit back and hopefully watch another Cubs victory over the Brewers on Wednesday night!
Now that is the way to kick off an exciting four game series with the Milwaukee Brewers! The Cubs came away with a 6-4 victory on Monday night and if the next three games are as exciting, we are going to be in for one great series! Once again there were plenty of Cubs fans up at Miller Park to root on the team and that is always great to see.
The Cubs got to Brewers starter CC Sabathia in the first inning when Alfonso Soriano missed a home run by two feet and led the game off with a double. He later scored on a rbi single by Derrek Lee to put the Cubs on top 1-0. In the third inning, Soriano smoked a solo home run about 30 ft farther then his lead off double. With the score at 2-0 the Cubs did not score again until the seventh inning when Lee grounded into a fielders choice and Ronny Cedeno scored. The Brewers should have got out of the inning but Rickie Weeks throw to first base was wild. Reed Johnson had a nice break up slide that forced Weeks to make the bad throw.
Things got really exciting in the ninth inning with the game tied at 4-4. Lee added another rbi on a double that scored Soriano and moved Mike Fontenot to third base. Fontenot then scored on a infield single by Mark DeRosa to make it 6-4 Cubs. The offense came through when they needed to and that is what they are going to have to do this entire series if the Cubs want to extend their lead over the Brewers.
On the mound it was Ted Lilly starting the game and throwing six innings while giving up seven hits and three runs. Lilly gave up back to back solo home runs in the sixth inning to J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun. Those two pitches were pretty much his only mistakes of the game. Bob Howry once again gave a run on a solo home run to Russell Branyon. Howry is stinking it up right now out of the bullpen. Chad Gaudin ended up picking up the win as the threw the eighth inning. Carlos Marmol was electric in the ninth inning as he got Gabe Kapler to fly out to the warning track to end the game. Marmol picked up his fifth save of the season in the game.
Now the Cubs will send Carlos Zambrano to the mound against Ben Sheets of the Brewers. It should be a classic pitchers duel and hopefully Big Z will be on top of his game!
On Sunday the Cubs came back from a 5-0 deficit to defeat the Florida Marlins by the score of 9-6. Most of you were probably thinking “oh crap here we go again” when the Marlins got up 5-0 behind two home runs from Mike Jacobs. However, the Cubs kept battling back and the bullpen held on for the victory.
Mike Fontenot had a big three run double that proved to be the game winning hit in the seventh inning. Alfonso Soriano also connected on a three run home run that tied the game at 5-5. Derrek Lee tacked on a solo home run as well. That is the kind of offense that we seen in the first half. Hopefully Sunday’s game is the first of many where we see the Cubs bats really heat up.
How about Jeff Samardzija throwing two scoreless innings and recording three strikeouts to pick up the save? Good outing by Samardzija as he was able to blow people away with the fastball pretty much. If he can establish that off speed pitch, he could be a good one. However if he relies on the fastball too much, he is going to get hit hard once the hitters realize he is throwing 80% fastballs.
So now the Cubs are up one game on the Milwaukee Brewers as they take the short drive up to Milwaukee to start a huge four game series on Monday night. Let’s all hope the hot bats carry over from Sunday and the pitching holds up for the Cubs to kick off the series with a victory!
So after the Cubs lost another one run ball game yesterday and the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Houston Astros, we have a Cubs / Brewers tie at the top of the Central division. That is why I say the Cubs season starts right now. The team has one more game against the Marlins on Monday and then will start a huge four game series against the Brewers on Monday. It would be nice to head into that series atleast tied for the lead.
Will the Cubs start hitting the ball and knock in some damn runs? Are they going to give their pitchers some run support finally? Will the bullpen finally hold a lead? Those questions right there need to be aswered in the next couple of day or the Cubs are going to find themselves behind the Brewers and possibly the Cardinals.
Let’s all sit back and watch Jason Marqus this afternoon and see if he can come out and shut down the fish. Hopefully we will and we will see an Astros win over the Brewers. Keep your heads up and hopef or the best cubs fans!
Blah, what a up and down game for the Cubs on Friday afternoon as they lost to the Florida Marlins 3-2. The Cubs allowed a ton of base runners and worked their way out of jams as they held the Marlins to three runs when they probably should have gave up five or six.
We seen Jeff Samardzija make his major league debut in the 7th inning and give up one run that tied the game. You could tell that Jeff was very nervous out there and was pretty wild. He over threw a pitch out with a runner stealing and was very wild with his fastball. He will definately have to show that he can throw an off speed pitch if he wants to be a good pitcher at the major league level. He did pitch the 8th inning and shut down the Marlins 1-2-3 so hopefully the 7th was just nerves but I stil say he needs a good off speed pitch to go with that fastball.
Bob Howry, yeah he gave up another run… Howry took the loss as he gave up a solo home run to Jeremy Hermida in the 9th inning. This was like the third or fourth game in a row that Howry has allowed a run to score. I don’t see how Lou still has confidence in the guy.
With the Cubs blowing the game, Ryan Dempster got the no decision. He pitched six innings while only giving up two hits and one run. Dempster did have control issues however as he walked six batters to go along with his six strikeouts.
Geovany Soto and Reed Johnson both hit solo home runs for the Cubs. That was it for them at the plate however. They had their chances to score runs but they just didn’t come up with the big hits like they usually do at Wrigley Field.
With the series tied at one game each, the Cubs will send Rich Harden to the mound on Saturday as they try to get back up in the series.
Wow, what a bigtime fight the Peoria Chiefs and Dayton Dragons had on Thursday night after batters were hit, a player broke his leg, and players sliding into second base with cleats up. Talk about trying to show who can hurt the other players more it sounded like. Also, the Chiefs pitcher that threw the ball into the Dragon’s dugout actually hit a fan that had to be taken to the hospital.
I found a youtube video of the fight happening. I will tell you that there is foul language in the video so make sure your volume is down if you are at work or have children around.
Wahoo, two games in a row that the Cubs have won! The Cubs defeated the Florida Marlins 6-3 on Thursday night as the two teams opened up a four game series at Wrigley Field. Things got a little dicey late in the game but the Cubs prevailed and went onto double up the fish.
The Cubs got out of a bases loaded jam in the 8th inning with zero outs by only giving up one run. Things could have been a lot different had Mark DeRosa not made a spectacular diving catch on a ball for the second out of the inning. The Cubs used four of their six relief pitchers in the inning to get out of the jam. Sean Marshall and Scott Eyre were the only relief pitchers to not see action in the 8th inning.
Carlos Zambrano picked up the win as he pitched seven innings. Big Z gave up six hits and two runs while striking out six batters. He made one mistake to Hanley Ramirez who hit a two run home run in the 3rd inning. Other then that, Zambrano was pretty good.
Carlos Marmol recorded the final out in the 8th inning, and then had some troubles in the 9th as he allowed the first two runners on base without recording an out. He then struck out Hanley Ramirez for the first out and then got Alfredo Amezaga to ground out to Marmol who got the out at second base. With runners on the corners, Jorge Cantu walked to load the bases and bring up Wes Helms. Helms then struckout to end the ballgame.
Ronny Cedeno and Henry Blanco both hit solo home runs in the game for the Cubs. Zambrano had a rbi double that really got the Cubs rally going in the 5th inning. Derrek Lee then walked with the bases loaded to score another run and Aramis Ramirez delivered a double that scored two more runs. Lee was thrown out at home plate on the Ramirez double.
Kerry Wood was finally put on the disabled list as the team had been hinting at it for the past few days. The blister on his throwing hand is getting better but he will need some side sessions to get back into game shape. One name that is being thrown out there to be called up is Jeff Samardzija. I think it will either be Samardzija or the Cubs will recall Michael Wuertz. What does everyone else think?
