"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do, I stare out the window and wait for spring." - Rogers Hornsby

:: Saturday, August 28, 2004 ::

A Long Day's Journey Into... Wet

As the ninth inning began today, with Moises Alou and Sammy Sosa due up, Mike reminded me that on April 16, with the very same umpiring crew that's here this weekend, Mo and Sammy hit back-to-back homers for a walkoff win over the Reds.

He then said, "I don't think that's going to happen today," and I had to agree, with the wind blowing in stiffly over the left-field wall. It was a lot warmer on that day four months ago, too, 76 degrees at game time, compared to today's 69. It felt colder than that -- I have no idea where they actually measure the reported game time temperature, but it doesn't seem to come from anywhere inside the ballpark.

We had June weather in April, August in May, and now that it's August, we're having May. Or maybe September. The irony of today's rain was that it didn't start till about 4:30, which would have been long after the game ended, if Fox hadn't exercised its right to not carry this game, and as a result, the Cubs moved the starting time from 12:20 to 3:05, so it could be televised via WGN. It was dry, in fact, most of the day, after an overnight deluge -- about three inches of rain measured on the north side of the city, and when I had left for work at 3 am, there was a lake of water lapping at the curb in front of my house, leading to my worry all through work that I'd return home to water in my basement. Luckily, it stopped raining by about six and all the street water drained into the sewers, where it belongs.

For the game, I was way, way, way underdressed -- t-shirt and shorts. Well, when I left the house it was fairly mild and humid, but the temperature seemed to steadily drop all afternoon. When Jeff called me to say he couldn't come (he had stuff to do that couldn't wait) and did I know of anyone who needed the ticket, I even asked him if he could drop off a sweatshirt. He'd already left the house without one, though. Then I thought I might buy one, but the cheapest one in the bleacher concession stand was $35. No way on that one. So, about the fourth ining, knowing that it was going to start raining soon, I put the poncho on. It's a lovely shade of Cubbie blue, and it kept the wind off me. Yeah, it was a lousy fashion statement. Dave said he was cold even wearing a sweatshirt. Only Mike, who thought to bring a jacket, was dressed for the weather.

The Cubs knew before they took the field that they could pick up a game in the wild-card race, as the Giants had lost to the Braves in one of the games that Fox-TV DID want to televise in the early-afternoon timeslot. But they sure didn't come out playing that way, and despite a furious comeback, just wound up with another depressing one-run loss, 7-6 to the Astros today. It was Roger Clemens' 14th win of the year and 324th of his career, tying him with Don Sutton and Nolan Ryan for 12th place on the all-time wins list. I only regret that the vagaries of suspensions and schedules prevented a possible Clemens-Greg Maddux matchup; there hasn't been a matchup of 300-game winners in 17 years, and unless Clemens returns in 2005, there may not be another for many, many years to come.

Carlos Zambrano had nothing in the first two innings, and he decided to subject us to pretty much every facet of bad pitching he could imagine -- line-drive hits (the Jeff Bagwell RBI double in the first probably would have been a long home run on any other day), walks, and a magical play in which Z failed to catch what would have been an inning-ending throw (after Derrek Lee made a terrific diving stop), which allowed a run to score, then made a terrible throw to the plate (on which I was astounded to learn on reading the boxscore, that the error was charged to Michael Barrett), letting a second run cross the plate, and finally, failed to go back and cover home afterwards, which sent the speedy Carlos Beltran home on a play where three runs scored and the ball never left the infield. The second was, incidentally, the Tomato Inning, and I had to use a Wrigley Field hotdog tomato today. If that's the result, I think I'm sticking to Jimmy John's from now on.

So Clemens has a 5-0 lead and rain's coming. Game over, right?

Not exactly. The Cubs did chip away with two in the third, and would have tied the game in the sixth with a four-consecutive-hit three-run rally off Clemens, except that another of those disturbing two-out-nobody-on rallies by the visitors happened in the top of the sixth, an inning in which, among other things, Dusty was apparently trying to see how many pitches Z could throw when he was soaking wet. The final run in that inning, which turned out to be the eventual winning run, scored when Aramis Ramirez was charged with a very tough error, on a ball that he probably couldn't handle due to the rain. It never rained very hard, but steadily for about an inning and a half just around that time, and when you haven't played well enough early on, there's simply no margin for error(s) like this.

By that time Dave had left, going to root on his Rockford Riverhawks (he's the owner) as they go for their own division clincher tonight, and Phil went downstairs saying he was probably leaving too. About an inning later I had to go. No, not leave the game, I had to GO and I knew it couldn't wait till I left, so I braved the men's room crowd which was starting to back up onto the ramp (something that's been unheard of until this season, incidentally), and it went fast enough -- I missed only two batters. Mike stayed put and kept score for me.

The rain let up into a fine mist, so we put our umbrellas down, though I kept the poncho on (mainly to keep the scorecard dry, which I did), and the Cubs made a game of it in the 8th, with three consecutive hits including a sweet, sweet Nomar Garciaparra pinch-hit RBI single (he was rested today and may have to rest a game or two on the turf in Montreal, but this guy is such a good hitter -- he went exactly with the pitch and rocketed it to the opposite field), and the Cubs actually had the tying run on third with only one out and Corey Patterson up, but this time Bad Corey returned and he struck out on a really bad pitch into the dirt.

The twelve-pitcher staff hurt the Cubs again today, I think. Yes, I know the bullpen's overextended which is why Z threw a ridiculous 125 pitches without finishing the sixth. And the staff today included the recalled Todd Wellemeyer, because as predicted yesterday, Kyle Farnsworth is on the DL, but not for the reason you'd think -- it's because he got mad and kicked a fan in the clubhouse tunnel and hyperextended his knee.

I shall not comment further on this.

Anyway, with 12 pitchers that means you have only five bench players, and one of them is by necessity your backup catcher, so that meant that when the pitcher's spot came up in the bottom of the 9th, Mark Grudzielanek had to bat against Brad Lidge. This would, of course, be the situation for Todd Hollandsworth, who's likely out for the year anyway. Grudz did manage to coax a two-out walk, and then I said to Mike, "If Barrett hits a homer here, this game will move into the category of Cub Legends."

It didn't, but it took a terrific diving stab by Astros 3B Mike Lamb to prevent a double down the line which would have tied the game.

Which, in a way, was OK with me. I was cold and wet and it was late, and I had kind of written the game off, and knew the Cubs would come out of today still leading the wild card, and the sun WILL come out tomorrow (no, no singing from me, trust me!) ... and we continue, hopeful and faithful as ever.

:: posted by Al at 7:51 PM [+] ::
...

Correction

Yesterday, I wrote that the little brouhaha that occurred when Roy Oswalt came to bat in the second inning, was instigated by Oswalt.

That's not right. A number of published reports, including this one, indicate that Michael Barrett was the culprit; he had words with Oswalt when he stepped into the batter's box.

There's no place for this, and Barrett will be lucky not to get suspended. This isn't something that a team in the heat of a playoff race ought to let itself do, and I trust that Dusty Baker had a nice long talk with Barrett afterwards.

Apologies to the Astros for this. Let's just play ball today.

:: posted by Al at 10:25 AM [+] ::
...

OK, That's It.

Kyle must go.

You know, Dusty Baker's loyalty to his players is one reason they produce for him, and it's admirable, and I know that's one reason a lot of the current roster is even here, because they wanted to play for him.

And Dusty's been loyal to a fault with Kyle Farnsworth, even while saying veiled threat-like things such as this, from a few days ago:

It's up to him and how he performs in whatever role he's in that day before the eighth [inning, referring to Kyle's former setup role]. Just give him time to get his head together, his mechanics together, whatever. We need Farnsy. We need the Farnsy that we know.

Obviously, that "Farnsy" is far, far away right now. If you didn't see it, Farnsworth threw perhaps the worst inning I've ever seen a Cub pitcher throw, allowing three singles, a double, triple, and the crowning blow, a three-run homer by Carlos Beltran (his second of the day, and his first landed about 10 feet to my right -- I had a hand on it, but couldn't grab it), and six runs, turning a potential ninth-inning comeback into a 15-7 loss to the Astros, and that was after the early innings provided some other excitement, which I'll get to in a minute.

It was an interesting day from the moment I walked into the bleachers and saw two people standing near our bench -- normally the place is empty other than security guards, and they were talking to Bill, the guy who's normally assigned to security in our section.

They weren't intruders after all, but guests of Jim Hendry. Turned out to be Andy Rayburn, who is the owner of the Daytona Cubs, the Cubs' High Class A affiliate in the Florida State League, here with his girlfriend.

Jeff and I had a terrific time talking to both of them -- very, very nice people, Andy insisted on buying both of us food and drink. I even had a couple of beers, since he was so nice. Hey, once or twice a year I'll have one in the bleachers, and today was the day.

I even explained the tomato ritual to him and let him help in the performance of the tomato drop, though today it didn't help -- it landed across the sixth and seventh innings, which were both 1-2-3 innings, and since Howard is not coming to tomorrow's game, I MAY give the tomato another day off. That decision will be made before arriving at tomorrow's game.

About the only thing I was right about today was saying to Mike after Houston's four-run top of the fourth: "Four runs isn't going to win this game." I figured that with the wind blowing out the Cub homer bats would get going, but only Derrek Lee solved Roy Oswalt early on, homering into the shrubbery in CF. Some drunk guy who was playing HR Derby came up behind me and claimed to have called that exact shot to that exact location, but who knows. Instead, it was the Astros homering off Kerry Wood, who had one of the worst outings of his career, allowing nine hits, including four homers, one of which, Jeff Kent's bomb leading off the fifth, bounced down Kenmore Avenue, probably close to 500 feet away from the plate.

The Astros pulled some juvenile stunts when Oswalt came up to bat in the first inning; apparently Oswalt said something to Michael Barrett that Barrett took exception to, and the benches cleared. Lance Berkman had already been hit by a pitch in the first inning by Kerry Wood, though it was certainly not a purpose pitch, and no warnings were issued. I guess the Astros just wanted to stir things up, and they should have just let their bats do the talking. Kent Mercker decided to do some stirring of his own when he hit Oswalt with the first pitch he threw upon entering the game in the sixth -- but apparently, no warnings were issued at all, because Mercker was allowed to continue, despite vehement argument by Astros manager Phil Garner, and there were no further incidents.

Nomar finally solved Oswalt for a two-run homer into the LF basket in the 8th, to close the score down to 9-6 and give some hope for a miracle comeback.

This is when Dr. Tightpants comes in, and you might not want to read this while eating, or shortly after doing so.

Yesterday, I wrote of Kyle:

The game was so out of hand that Dr. Tightpants made his first appearance with his new clean-cut look. Didn't make any difference. Sure, he threw a scoreless inning, but as usual, he walked the first batter he faced and it took him twenty-six pitches to finish up, which probably makes him useless tomorrow. (No cracks about the word "useless" here, please.)

"Useless" would have been better than what happened. He almost struck out the side, but this 37-pitch inning, which included 25 strikes (Hey! He didn't walk anyone!) was, as I said, about the worst single inning I've ever seen a Cub pitcher throw, or maybe even ANY pitcher throw. The 25 strike number is misleading, because six of those were hit very, very hard. After Beltran's homer, Dave Groeschner, the trainer, came out, and Kyle was bent over. I have my thoughts about why that was happening, but I'll keep them to myself.

Whatever the cause, it's time for him to go. Whether they send him to the glue factory, make him work midnight security at the ballpark, or just put him on the disabled list, I cannot imagine he'll be on the active roster tomorrow. Bring up Todd Wellemeyer, or sign Rod Beck, or just about anyone living and breathing. ANYONE. In fact, a DL move is beneficial, because if a player is on the DL on August 31, he is eligible for postseason play. And frankly, if Kyle can get his head and his life straightened out in a month's time, he does, after all, throw a hundred mile per hour fastball, and if his brain could actually follow the lead of his arm, he'd be nearly unhittable.

Fortunately, games like this do count as only one loss, and the Cubs are still 15-9 this month, and 22-13 since the disastrous Cardinal series in mid-July, which is also the last time they lost more than two in a row.

It wasn't too likely for the Cubs to sweep this series, and tomorrow, weather permitting (and it may not), Carlos Zambrano faces Roger Clemens. For anyone who doesn't keep up with day-to-day starting times and might want to watch tomorrow's game, Fox-TV decided not to pick up this game and so the time was changed to 3:05 CT and the game will be on WGN. The later starting time, in fact, might be beneficial as the greater chances of rain appear to be earlier in the day.

Today's clipboard-smacking Howard pun: Mike Lamb, who had replaced an apparently injured Morgan Ensberg at third base, came up in the ninth with a runner on first and one out. Howard wondered if he'd bunt, and I couldn't figure out why, until he said, "He's a sacrificial Lamb."

Yeah, you can smack him too. Wish Lamb had bunted -- he tripled into the right-field corner.

Sight seen today: a group of about a dozen young women, wearing pink T-shirts titled "Liz's Bachelorette Party" (and "Liz" was incongruously dressed in a green cheerleader's outfit, with bridal veil), and reading on the back:

The Boston Girls are here
So buy us all a BEER
It's Liz's Last Hoorah
p.s. We're taking back NOMAH

Clever, but that last line ain't gonna happen. In fact, we were today discussing the fact that Mia Hamm, having won the soccer gold medal in Athens along with her USA women's soccer teammates, will now join the Cubs on the road, to travel with her husband Nomar, and that apparently Nomar's been telling her how much he likes life as a Cub, and hoping that perhaps in the next homestand, a first-pitch opportunity could be arranged for Mrs. Nomar, Olympic Gold Medalist.

That might be occasion for the loudest ovation we've heard at the Yard in a long, long time.

:: posted by Al at 7:15 PM [+] ::
...

What I Won't Do For This Team...

As I mentioned, I have had to work unusual hours the past couple of days, meaning that I had to squeeze a few innings of the games in between work shifts.

So today at noon, I raced out of work to run to the L to head to the ballpark.

I am a train wreck. I ran a little too fast, and tripped and fell flat on my face on the sidewalk on State Street. Don't worry, I'm OK. Got a scrape on my knee, one on a finger, and my chin feels a bit bruised, but other than that, I feel fine. I know my dad reads this blog, and seriously, Dad, I'm OK!

So are the Cubs. They came out with bats blazing again today and smacked the Astros 8-3, with Mark Prior winning his first game at Wrigley Field since... [gulp]... game two of the 2003 National League Championship Series against the Marlins. The Cubs moved to 15 games over .500 for the first time since game 161 of the 2003 season, and I began a new consecutive-home-games-attended streak with a victory. The last time the Cubs were more than 15 games over .500 was on September 4, 2001, when their record fell to 77-61 after a loss to ... [gulp again] Josh Beckett of the Marlins, making his major league debut on that day. He allowed the Cubs only one hit in six innings and the Cubs lost to Florida 8-0.

When I finally did get to the ballpark, Bill the security guard said, "The Big Four are here!" -- referring to Jeff, Howard, Mike and myself. We liked that, although we also like the term "Bleacher Geeks", which was tagged on us by an ESPN.com article a couple of years ago. Yeah, that's us.

As I wrote over the weekend having watched the Astros on TV, they look dispirited, even though they made a half-hearted attempt to get back into the wild-card race earlier this week by sweeping the Phillies (I guess the Phillies thought they were playing the Marlins), but today, they looked as they did over the weekend in Houston.

When Jeff Bagwell homered in the first, we all agreed, with the wind blowing out at an announced 9 MPH (though it felt stronger), that wouldn't be the last home run. Mike said, "Today, it's OK if they crank up the longball," and I agreed, even if they were all solo shots.

Only two Cubs homered, but they were the centerpiece of the decisive five-run inning, making today's Tomato Inning (the seventh) moot, and besides, I had left by then to go back to work. I did manage to see the last out of the top of the fifth, giving me an official game -- Jeff wasn't going to let me "count" it unless I did. He was joking. I think.

Anyway, Sammy Sosa hit his 29th homer of the season and 568th of his career, just inside the right-field foul pole, a three-run jack that I noted to Mike was probably the farthest to the opposite field we'd ever seen Sammy homer. With one more homer, that'll give him eleven thirty-homer seasons. Jimmy Foxx and Barry Bonds are the leaders in that category, with fourteen such years each. Sammy's also got 63 RBI with 35 games left in which to get 37 RBI to make it an even ten straight seasons with 100 RBI. If he does so that would set a new National League record.

It's a longshot, but Sosa's had hot months before and his bat does seem to be coming alive right now, and the timing couldn't be better. Since he's moved into the fifth spot in the order he's started to hit again -- and so has Aramis Ramirez, hitting right behind. Dusty's almost stumbled on what seems to be the perfect batting order, and being the type of manager he is (NOT analytical), he'll probably ride this horse for a while.

The only thing I found wrong with Dusty's managing today was this -- why on Earth would you leave Mark Prior in for 116 pitches on a humid day when he'd been running the bases in two innings, and had a 7-2 lead after five, and the bullpen's not really that overworked? When I left after the top of the fifth, I told everyone I figured Prior was done, and considering he had a seventeen-pitch sixth inning, I think I'd have taken him out after five.

The game was so out of hand that Dr. Tightpants made his first appearance with his new clean-cut look. Didn't make any difference. Sure, he threw a scoreless inning, but as usual, he walked the first batter he faced and it took him twenty-six pitches to finish up, which probably makes him useless tomorrow. (No cracks about the word "useless" here, please.) I still think there's something wrong with him that a DL stint might be of some use, and keep in mind that if you are on the DL on August 31, you are eligible for postseason play, and the Cubs might want to think about DL'ing him on that day, to give them some options.

The "conventional media" will no doubt make a big deal about the rematch of Kerry Wood and Roy Oswalt tomorrow after the beanball skirmish on Sunday, but that's not how it works. Oswalt, for his part, appeared in relief on Tuesday (since he threw only a bit over two innings on Sunday before getting tossed), and each game is a new one, and I doubt there'll be any bad blood between these two teams. Houston looks more and more like a club that just wants to go home.

The Cubs, who clinched the season series today by beating the Astros for the tenth time this year, can go a long way toward accomplishing just that in the next three days.

Onward we go, with hope.

:: posted by Al at 7:55 PM [+] ::
...

They Never Learn, Do They.

[a rant]

Last night, the Atlanta Braves beat the Colorado Rockies 8-1.

You're asking, why do I care about this?

I care because this game marked the major league debut of Jeff Francis, starting pitcher for the Rockies, a first-round draft pick in 2002 and by all accounts, a top-level pitching prospect.

He's also possibly the best pitching prospect ever to come out of Canada, and the Canadians very much wanted him to pitch for their Olympic team. However, the Rockies, for some unfathomable reason, refused this permission. Perhaps as a result, the Canadian team failed to win a medal, losing to eventual gold medalist Cuba in the semifinals.

Think about this. You have a team, the Rockies, going nowhere, 18 games out of first place. You have a young man who could have represented his country in the Olympics, something that in baseball, players generally get only one shot to do. By 2008, if baseball is even still an Olympic sport, Jeff Francis will likely be in the Rockies' starting rotation.

This was extremely selfish on Colorado's part. Rosters can be expanded next week, for heaven's sake. To have let Francis go for a month for practices and the Olympics themselves, would have hardly stunted his development. Oh, and he wound up getting pounded for six runs in five innings, allowing three homers, even though he struck out eight.

Bud Selig ought to have ordered the Rockies to let him go to Athens. If baseball really wants to promote international development and have a World Cup tournament, this is exactly NOT the way to do it.

But then, that's SOP for MLB.

[end rant]

:: posted by Al at 10:27 AM [+] ::
...

Rats!

No, that's certainly not me saying I didn't like today's walkoff Cub win, 4-2 over the Brewers, sweeping the series, winning their fourth in a row, seventh in their last eight, eighth in the last 11, going to a season-high 14 games over .500 and increasing the wild-card lead to a game and a half over the Giants, pending their game at Florida tonight.

It's me saying Rats! because I had to miss this one.

I work hours that allow me to get to the Yard every day... except today and tomorrow, when I have been asked to work a later-in-the-day shift, not starting at 4 am, but staying till 6:30 pm. So, I arranged with the office to give me a break in the middle, so I could come to the game and stay till about 3:00 or shortly after, which is what I used to do years ago when I worked the 3pm-11pm shift, and see six innings or so.

However, today the weather would not cooperate. I did go to the ballpark, sat and talked to Mike, Jeff and Jessica for a couple of hours, but just as the tarp was being lifted a little before 3:00, I had to leave in order to be back at work as expected by around 3:30. The last home game I missed was on May 31, 2003, one of two I chose to miss last year to go to my 25th anniversary college reunion at Colgate University. That made, up to today, 116 consecutive home games attended (122 including the six home playoff games last year).

Oh, well. I told them "No no-hitters, no four-homer games, nothing historic, just a garden-variety 4-3 Cub win."

Hey, they almost came through on exactly that -- after a little excitement that we didn't want from LaTroy Hawkins, blowing another save and what would have been Greg Maddux' 13th win by giving up a single, a sacrifice and a double for the tying run in the top of the ninth. It seems so unfair for Hawkins to "vulture" a win from Maddux in this way, but we'll take it, and I know Greg will too. It was one of Maddux' best outings of the year, allowing only one run, four hits and a walk in his usual efficiency, 84 pitches in eight innings.

Fortunately, one of the perks of working at a TV station is that there are, in fact, TV's everywhere, many of which are tuned to the Cubs game and so I got a chance to watch most of the game (obviously, not ALL of it -- I did have to do my work as well!).

I was sorry to have missed Paul Bako's first home run since July 7, 2002, when he was playing for -- of all teams -- the Brewers, only the 14th home run of his seven-year, 500+ game career. If you saw the game or the replay, the guy who caught it and was jumping up and down, all excited, was Dave, a semi-regular who used to live in Chicago, now lives in St. Louis (for work reasons), and who sits in the next section over from us; the ball landed probably 20 feet from my regular seat. Right after that I called Jeff, mainly to say how sorry I was that I missed a .183 hitter managing to hit a homer, and he told me how close it had come, and then I saw the replay of Dave catching the ball.

Jeff actually called me at work in the decisive bottom of the ninth after Mark Grudzielanek led off with a triple. I accidentally pressed the wrong button and had to call him back to tell him fair or foul.

The wire service stories say that replays were "inconclusive". I'm not sure what replays that writer was watching, because the one I saw was really clear -- Grudz' ball was several inches foul, maybe even a foot, and it wasn't even close. 1B umpire Mark Wegner (who looks on a closeup TV shot like he's about 20 years old) blew the call. I thought Brewers manager Ned Yost, coming out to argue the call, was about to explode, the veins in his neck got so thick, and it didn't take too long before he got tossed.

You know what? There have been at least two calls like this in the last month alone, that were so obviously wrong, that went against the Cubs, and one of them (the blown DP on August 12 against San Diego) probably cost them that game.

We'll take it. As I've said to Mike before, we have 95 years of breaks coming to us. If a missed umpiring call helped the Cubs win a game, we'll take it.

Even at that, a leadoff triple (at least it appeared to be a triple all the way; the boxscore ruled it a double and an error) in the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs nearly stranded Grudz at third when Bako and Todd Walker both popped up in the infield, before Corey Patterson came up. Patterson, frankly, didn't have that good an at-bat to start off, quickly going down 0-2. But he worked the count even and then had a really good swing at a low pitch and golfed it into the group section in RF, leading to cheers in the newsroom where just about every TV was tuned to the game, even the one being watched by one of the evening executive producers, who is from St. Louis and a Cardinals fan.

Tomorrow's weather forecast calls for warmer and breezy conditions, with no chance of rain till evening, so although I'll have to leave a little after 3 for work again, at least I'll see six innings or so. A win's a win, and you take them any way they come.

Oh, one note that I forgot from yesterday. Though we haven't seen Dr. Tightpants in action since the two blowout wins over the weekend, maybe there's hope for him after all. I spotted him in the outfield yesterday during BP (hanging out by himself)... and he got a haircut, fairly short, maybe the first one he's had all year.

Onward, with faith and hope.

:: posted by Al at 7:31 PM [+] ::
...

So It Rained. Who Cares?

As the ninth inning started last night, Mike said to me, "I can't WAIT to see this blog entry!"

So I said, "Here it is!"

The Cubs won 13-4. It rained some. That's it! Goodnight!

Well, it was easy to laugh after the Cubs indeed did win easily over the Brewers 13-4, the seventh win in the last ten games, third in a row, and perhaps not coincidentally, six wins in the seven games since Sammy Sosa "agreed" to drop into the fifth spot in the batting order. It led them to the high-water mark of the season, thirteen games over .500, and into sole possession of the wild-card lead, as the Giants gave up seven runs in the first inning and got blown out by the Marlins 9-1, although the Wrigley Field scoreboard's new math had the Marlins scoring seven in the first and three in the fourth for a total of ten. The board also had the Twins and Rangers skipping the fourth and fifth innings entirely, and listed the White Sox/Tigers final score as 9-4 (it was actually 9-5), which made keeping track of out-of-town scores very interesting.

In addition to going a game up on the Giants, the Cubs are two games up on them in the loss column, and I'm going to write this in really small type because it's really too early to think about this, but I'm thinking about it anyway:

Cubs' magic number to clinch wild card: 36

Can you tell I'm happy? Hey, the Cubs even picked up a game on the Cardinals, for whatever that's worth, now only 13 games behind. I suppose cutting the final deficit to less than ten would be a moral victory of sorts.

Speaking of high-water marks, it absolutely poured down rain from about 2:30 till 4:30, and I couldn't decide how to dress. I went out in shorts only to see a time/temp sign that said "60". Thinking this might be a front going through, I went home to change into jeans, only to step back out into humidity. Back on the shorts went, though it was a little coolish, not bad, 70 at game time, and the umbrella and a pullover golf wind shirt in tow. Luckily, despite the heavy rain, I had no water in my basement.

The Tomato Inning was set at the bottom of the sixth -- a two-run inning with the bizarre sequence of HBP, walk, HBP, walk and single, and it landed squarely on the fourth spot in the batting order. You're welcome, Moises Alou, for the career-high day you got, six RBI on two homers and a sac fly.

But that wasn't the only mark that the scorecard got. I had left the card on the bench to make my usual pre-game pilgrimage to the men's room. When I got back I saw it had started to spit a little bit of rain, and Mike hadn't turned it upside down, so I wound up with a couple of water stains on the card. No, those don't have the same effect as the tomato -- they just make the thin card stock curl up. Mike, who is an expert at such things, did his best to help flatten it out, but the later rainfall put much more curve in the card than I'd want.

Badge of honor, that is.

I swear, the Cubs must be reading this blog. Two days after I complained about all the solo homers, the Cubs (for the second time this season), hit a solo (Aramis Ramirez), but also a two-run homer (Alou), a three-run homer (Alou again), and a grand slam (Derrek Lee), though not in sequence, as they did the other time earlier this year against the Reds.

I swear again. Whoever kidnapped Corey Patterson and replaced him with this guy who draws walks, steals bases and smacks extra-base hits all over the Yard, don't let the original out of the dungeon. This is the second half that Patterson appeared on target to have last year when he was injured, and this is exactly the time they need this from a genuine leadoff man. Patterson still strikes out too much to be a great leadoff hitter, but perhaps more discipline will come over time. He struck out only once today, had a single, HBP, two doubles and three runs scored. Since August 1, when he was installed in the leadoff spot, he is 31-for-84, with 15 runs, 6 doubles, 6 homers, 7 walks, 11 steals, and is hitting .369/.424/.655 for an OPS of 1.079 -- nearly Bondsian territory.

The game slogged on, and like Monday's performance by Carlos Zambrano, Matt Clement also had a no-hitter going, though only through four innings. He was probably stunned at the offensive support he was receiving, and showed little command through the first four. He walked three, but getting the Brewers (who have lost 8 in a row and have to go only 12-26 in their remaining games for me to win my bet with John from Phoenix, who bet me that Milwaukee would have a better record than they did last year), to swing at his stuff seemed easy, since he also had five strikeouts through those four. He was lucky, in fact, to get out of the first inning after walking Scott Podsednik to lead off the game. Podsednik went to second on a ground out and then inexplicably tried to steal third, and was thrown out easily.

Then Matt got careless and gave up a couple of two-run homers, but as the score was 10-4 at the time, it really didn't matter, and it started raining off and on, harder into the sixth inning, which was played in a steady moderate rain. Finally, just before the bottom of the 7th was played, the game was held up by a stubborn little rainstorm that seemed to want to place itself right over the north side of Chicago and nowhere else in the entire metropolitan area.

An hour later, when the rain ended and the field was prepared for play, more than 90% of the crowd had gone home, mostly due to the score and the relatively late hour. I'd say there were no more than 2,000 people left in the stands, and even then, Sammy Sosa wouldn't throw a ball up toward us. Actually, I'm kind of glad he doesn't, because of the mad rush to grab those baseballs, there's much piling on and none of us really needs to do that for a $10 baseball. Meanwhile, Howard hung his pink poncho (it really has to be seen to be properly appreciated) on the back fence to dry.

Also after the rain, Dusty emptied the benches, wisely getting Aramis Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra out of there rather than risk further injury to them, and also giving Todd Walker two innings in left field, the first time he has played the outfield at the major league level. He caught a routine fly for the last out of the game. Another oddity, though you do see this from time to time -- Glendon Rusch qualified for a save under the "pitch three innings with any lead" part of the save rule. He did throw three effective innings, allowing three harmless hits and walking no one.

Howard, Mike & I amused each other by smacking each other on the head with the clipboards for some really bad puns. They were so bad, in fact, that I can't remember what a single one of them was.

This club now appears to be clicking the way we thought they would all season. After losing the first three games to Milwaukee, this win clinches the season series (9-7 with one game left). We owe these guys a sweep.

:: posted by Al at 8:35 AM [+] ::
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Thirteen!

Before I explain the significance of today's post heading, let me tell you that the day did NOT start out auspiciously.

I had just parked my car, and after I closed the door and started to walk away, I realized I'd left the umbrella in the car. (Never mind that it never rained and I didn't really need it.)

I walked back and stepped square in dog poop.

Worse, I didn't realize this until after I had stepped back into the car, thus getting the dog poop actually IN the car.

Oh well. Cleaned it up and moved on, and hoped the game would work out better.

It did. You know, Dusty Baker and the ballclub must have read my post from yesterday, and also Scott Lange's at the Northside Lounge, referring to the Cubs' low OBP and over-reliance on the home run.

Whatever it took, it worked. The Cubs smacked out five doubles and eight singles (thirteen total hits, get it now?), drew two walks, and beat the Brewers 8-3, their fifth win in the last six games and sixth in the last nine, and they are finally beginning to do what good teams have to do, beat up on the trailing teams, and they're starting to do it in blowout fashion. They also matched their high-water mark of the year, going to 12 games over .500, and now are 12-8 in August. And, carrying on the theme of yesterday's post, it was their first win without a home run since July 2.

It was much cooler than I expected at the Yard last night -- one of those lake breeze fronts had blown through mid-afternoon, and though it was a warm morning, by gametime it was 67 degrees and felt cooler. The shorts were a little too much, though I made it without really freezing. Mike mentioned to me halfway through the game, and then I noticed it myself, that the humidity level was way up, because the pencils were mushing through the scorecards rather than scoring crisply.

Meanwhile, Howard was outside selling a few tickets because "I really have to get some work done tonight", and suddenly he showed up in the first inning, saying "I'm not really here."

Well, he wasn't "really there" through the fourth inning, because Carlos Zambrano was sharp tonight, having what Mike and I give each other knowing looks when this happens early, no-hitter stuff. Howard left, saying he had access to another ticket and would come back if anything was "happening" in the 7th. So when Corey Patterson made what Mike and I both agreed was one of the greatest catches we'd ever seen (credit where credit is due: Patterson's been a whole different player since installed in the leadoff spot on August 1 -- this is the guy who had that great first half in 2003 before getting hurt), laying flat-out to catch a Craig Counsell line drive in the 2nd, and then Moises Alou (!) dove to catch a Scott Podsednik long fly just short of the wall in the sixth, we thought we might be about to see history. So often, no-hitters are made by defensive plays like that, even more so than the pitcher's stuff.

It wasn't to be. Z wound up giving up four hits and three runs, and could have gotten out of it with only one run, if he'd been able to retire pinch-hitter Ben Grieve, who doubled in two runs after Z was pretty much out of gas at 115 pitches.

This made the score 6-3 and we have seen Cub teams this year fold under leads like that, bring in Dr. Tightpants or even one of the good relievers and not be able to, as my friend Phil says, "close the deal".

This is where today's Tomato Inning comes in. It was the bottom of the seventh, and this is where the good teams do exactly what the Cubs did today -- after giving back half their lead, they got two of the three runs back, with a double, a hit batsman, and two singles. It's even more gratifying to see them do this, as noted, without any home runs. The wind was blowing in fairly stiffly last night, though it shifted around quite a bit -- at game time it was straight in, then it died for a while, and by the end of the game it was straight off the lake, blowing in from right field.

It's a little bit disturbing to learn why Nomar missed last night's game. It's not the Achilles, this time he's got a sore wrist, apparently hurt in BP in Houston last Friday. He did hit in BP last night and hopefully, he'll play today. This is another good sign -- the club has won 2 of 3 with him on the bench.

To end at the beginning, the game was played as scheduled despite the city's threat to shut it down based on a misstatement made by a Los Angeles Times reporter. In fact, Stan Kaderbek, the city building inspector, specifically said, in reference to the reporter's misstatement:

I can say at this point we found no evidence of shoddy repairs and the Cubs can play tonight's game.

To which I say, DUH! This was clear long before last week's tempest in a teapot, and all it wound up doing was giving the newspapers some front-page stories for a few days.

With the win, the Cubs move into a virtual tie with the Giants for the wild-card lead -- the Giants having played two more games, with one more win and one more loss. Both teams stand two games ahead of San Diego, and with each passing day this is looking more and more like a three-team race -- the next closest team, the Marlins, is four games back... and here's where it becomes difficult to know who to root for. Florida hosts the Giants this week. I guess you have to root for the Marlins, but I dunno.

Onward, with faith and hope.

:: posted by Al at 4:33 AM [+] ::
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That Was Fun, BUT...

Here's a sobering statistic. Since the All-Star break, a total of 36 games, the Cub won/lost record, sorted by games in which they have homered or not, is:

With a home run: 20-8
Without a home run: 0-8

In fact, the last game the Cubs won without the benefit of a home run was the 6-2 win over the White Sox on July 2, 42 games ago -- oddly, 42 games in which the Cubs have gone exactly 21-21.

I'm being a party-pooper of sorts here. Sure, today's 11-6 annihilation of the Astros in Houston (one of those "not as close as the score indicated" games) was a lot of fun (though in the last of the 9th, it bored WGN's graphics people enough that they didn't even bother noting the base-advance taken by Lance Berkman), and it wasn't all home runs, either, with four different players -- Corey Patterson, Todd Walker, Sammy Sosa, and Michael Barrett -- all having two hits, and a team total of twelve hits and four walks. I'm being a little unfair to the Cubs here too, because though this seems extreme, I haven't done any further research to find out whether other teams have similar splits.

The Cubs are on pace not only to break the club record of 220 homers (set last year), but the league record of 249, held by the 2000 Astros. Homers are fun, but this team isn't going anywhere if they can't find other ways to score. Homers don't win you playoff games or series.

Fortunately, pitching does, and the Cubs do have plenty of that, coming into today only one run behind the Dodgers for fewest runs allowed.

And I shouldn't complain about a 4-2 road trip, raising the Cubs' road record to 34-31, fifth-best in the NL, and now the Cubs are on another one of those mini-rolls that we wish could grow into a huge streak, winning five of their last eight games, and winning six of the nine games in Houston this year.

It was so good today that it appears that Dr. Tightpants has been assigned a role: mopup pitcher in blowout wins, which he did both Friday and today. Actually, given that role, let's hope we see a lot more of him, even with the homer he allowed.

Kerry Wood was throwing pretty well, allowing only a scratch run driven in by Jose Vizcaino (how the heck he went 4-for-4, I'll never know), and a homer by Mike Lamb, when he hit Jeff Kent on what was clearly NOT a purpose pitch with one out in the bottom of the fifth and a 10-2 lead, which earned him an automatic ejection.

Why? Well, both benches had been warned after Houston starter Roy Oswalt had hit Barrett with what clearly WAS a purpose pitch right after Aramis Ramirez' big three-run homer. Oswalt was immediately ejected and the usual milling-around of bullpen pitchers ensued.

Wood, who had hit Jason Lane in the second inning, later hit Carlos Beltran on a pitch that replays showed hit the dirt first, though Beltran was immediately awarded first base (didn't matter, as he didn't score). Despite the warnings, plate umpire Bill Hohn didn't toss Wood, and Steve Stone went into a long discussion of how the automatic-ejection rule handcuffs umpires, doesn't allow them to make judgment calls, and Hohn put himself on the line to make this call. When Phil Garner came out to argue, I'd imagine Hohn told him that if Wood hit anyone else, he'd toss him, which is exactly what happened in the fifth.

Stone then said, again correctly, that there's no way a pitcher like Kerry Wood would do such a thing, two outs from registering a win in a blowout game. And he's right, and I'm sure Hohn told Dusty Baker that he felt his hand was forced. Dusty, for his part, did a good job of keeping Wood calm so that he didn't earn another suspension.

The bottom line here is -- pitchers need to pitch inside to establish that part of the plate, but they've got to draw a fine line, and there's no place in baseball for intentionally hitting anyone -- look at what happened to Sammy Sosa when he got hit in the head last year. Steve Stone is right, also, about the impossible position an umpire is put in with the automatic-ejection-after-warnings rule. Give Bill Hohn credit for stretching that rule once, and also correctly figuring he couldn't stretch it twice.

Luckily, this had no effect on today's result.

Worrisome: Nomar didn't play today, for the second day in a row. We knew he'd have to rest from time to time with the sore Achilles, but missing two games, and missing an obvious slot to put him in as a defensive replacement last night, which would have moved Ramon Martinez to third and perhaps saved the win, is something that the club just has to deal with.

Let's hope he's ready to go tomorrow night when the Cubs play their sixty-third game against the Brewers this year -- at least it seems like that many.

Faith and hope.

:: posted by Al at 4:12 PM [+] ::
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OK, Here's The Good News

The Giants blew a 3-0 lead and lost to the Mets 11-9 in 12 innings, so the Cubs remain half a game out of the wild-card lead (and still one loss fewer than San Francisco).

More good news! The Marlins beat the Padres 8-2, so San Diego stays a full game behind the Cubs.

This is all my way of avoiding discussion of a brutal 4-3 Cub loss to the Astros, which, in the space of about ten minutes, went from what could have been one of the most inspirational comeback wins of the year, into one of the most devastating losses.

It wouldn't even have gotten that far if Mark Prior, whose boxscore line (seven innings, two earned runs) wasn't too bad, hadn't issued three walks in the second inning -- including an inexplicable intentional walk to Jose Vizcaino. OK, Dusty, you listening?

DON'T EVER INTENTIONALLY WALK JOSE VIZCAINO!!!

Especially when the next hitter is Brad Ausmus, a guy who doesn't walk much either, and Prior walked him too, and then the pitcher, for heaven's sake, who had zero RBI this year, got two by singling with the bases loaded.

You know, far too many pitchers have had good offensive days against the Cubs this year. I wonder if that's a lack of concentration.

The Cubs managed to squeak out a run in the eighth and then two in the ninth off Houston's version of LaTroy Hawkins, Brad Lidge, including the fifth triple of the year from Michael Barrett (on a swing that was a pulled-back fake bunt), and take the lead. Interestingly, Steve Stone pointed out during the telecast that the Cubs' record when NOT hitting a home run was 9-24. Well, now it's 9-25, and this club is simply going to have to start learning to win without the longball. Sure, it's easy to win when you hit six homers in a game. It's another thing to figure out how to single and double -- AND WALK -- your way to multiple-run rallies. Oh, but Dusty's been quoted as saying that walks "clog up the bases". Hmmm. Not quite sure how this works, but go ask the Oakland Athletics, who live by the walk, and are in first place in the AL West, how clogged their bases are.

Anyway, Hawkins was called on for the ninth, and though it was only his third blown save of the year, it came pretty quickly. I'm not going to blame Hawkins entirely for this one -- Jose Macias decided that a throw on a sacrifice bunt needed to go down the right-field line instead of to Derrek Lee, and instead of a runner on second and one out, there's runners on second and third and nobody out, and I'm guessing even Eric Gagne (especially now, when he seems suddenly vulnerable) isn't going to pull a save out of that magic hat.

There are plenty of games left -- 40. The Cubs have won 66 games. I would think that a 25-15 record -- which is clearly within this team's reach, and would give them 91 wins -- would win the wild card. That is, incidentally, exactly how many games the Marlins won last year as the wild card.

Today's marquee pitching matchup, Kerry Wood vs. Roy Oswalt, will decide the series, and again, all is forgiven with a win. This pitching matchup will be repeated at Wrigley Field next Friday. Let's win both of them.

:: posted by Al at 7:40 AM [+] ::
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