Tom Smith's Cubs Blog |
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Thoughts on the Chicago Cubs and other topics in baseball. E-mail Tom at: tomsmithcubs@ hotmail.com
Archives
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Saturday, May 17, 2003
FRIDAY'S GAME AT ST. LOUIS: Last night Matt Clement was again terrible. I am really beginning to worry about him. Last season it appeared if Clement was finally achieving what was expected of him earlier in his career but know he seems to have gone backward. If Clement keeps up his poor pitching we have to consider an alternative. In addition to Clement's bad pitching, the baserunning by the Cubs was sloppy as well. Todd Wellemeyer looked good again. Cubs lose to St. Louis 7-4. PRESTON GOMEZ AWARD: The Preston Gomez Award for bad managing to Dusty Baker. With the score was 5-4 Cardinals in the top of the sixth inning with two outs the Cubs had Corey Patterson on third and Paul Bako on first with Matt Clement, who cannot hit, due up to bat. Clement had pitched terrible all night and was near 100 pitches for the game. Baker let Clement hit, and not shockingly, Clement struck out. I know the bullpen was worked a lot on Thursday but we do have seven relievers down there. This was a chance to tie the game but Baker let Clement stay in the game to do more damage with his bat and with more of his pitching. CHIPMUNK: Chip got talking about Cardinals shortstop Edgar Reteria last night and how he had come to the Cardinals from the Marlins via a trade. Then Chip informed us "The last shortstop the Cardinals had before Reteria also came in a trade; Ozzie Smith." Actually St. Louis had Royce Clayton at shortstop between Smith and Reteria. Friday, May 16, 2003
THURSDAY'S GAME AT MILWAUKEE: The Cubs had a 1-0 lead on Eric Karros's seventh inning homerun but gave it up in the eighth. The Cubs and Brewers both scored in the tenth to keep the game in extra innings. Corey Patterson hit a two-run homerun to give the Cubs a 4-2 lead in the 17th inning. Todd Wellemeyer in his major league debut got the save as the Cubs beat Milwaukee 4-2. Thursday, May 15, 2003
WEDNESDAY'S GAME AT MILWAUKEE: The box score does not show it but last night's game at Milwaukee was quite a pitcher's contest between Matt Kinney for Milwaukee and Carlos Zambrano for the Cubs. Zambrano was outstanding last night. Zambrano did not give up an run until the eighth as he shut down the Brewers for most of the night. A balanced attack from the offense gave the Cubs two runs in the second and four more in the eighth to lead the Cubs to a 6-1 victory over Milwaukee. Wednesday, May 14, 2003
TUESDAY'S GAME AT MILWAUKEE: Shawn Estes looked good again last night, Hee Seop Choi had a two-run homerun to deep centerfield, as the Cubs won 7-2 against the Milwaukee Brewers. Tuesday, May 13, 2003
MONDAY'S GAME AT MILWAUKEE: The Cubs may be without Sammy Sosa and his right toe but the 14 game road trip started off on the right foot on Monday night in Milwaukee. The Cubs pounded Milwaukee starter Glendon Rusch and the Brewers bullpen as the Cubs won 11-5. Mark Grudielanek went 4 for 5 with a walk, Moises Alou went 4 for 6 including a solo homerun, Damian Miller had three-run homerun as well. Mark Prior pitched well but not great. Dusty Baker let Prior throw 124 pitches in six innings of work which is a tad too many pitches in my mind. In the top of the second inning Prior was on second base and scored on a basehit to left but the play at the plate was close. I hated to see Wendell Kim send Prior and risk injury to Prior but Prior was ok and safe at the plate. Monday, May 12, 2003
SUNDAY'S NON-GAME VS. ST. LOUIS: The Cardinals and Cubs played four zany innings in the rain and wind on Sunday but the game was declared a non-game after the non-game was called after a rain delay which was called in the top of the fifth inning with St. Louis leading 11-9. PHIL ROGERS ON RAINOUTS: Phil Rogers is absolutely right on in his column in the Chicago Tribune today about rainouts being declared non-games if they have not gone five innings. Rogers calls for games to be suspended and resumed the next time the teams play. The policy on rainouts has never made any sense. The homeruns we saw yesterday happened. The runs that were scored happened. But to Major League Baseball we are supposed to look at what we saw yesterday in the non-game like the wizard in the Wizard of Oz wants us to not look at him, pay no attention to what you saw at Wrigley Field on May 11, 2003 for four innings. It really did not occur. Never. I guess the Cardinals' Eli Marrero's sprained right ankle did not occur either. MARIOTTI RE-RUN: Jay Mariotti could not come up with a new idea for a column for today's Chicago Sun-Times. Ok what else is new? So guess what, he dusted off an oldie but not so goody theme of his for today's Chicago Sun-Times. Today's re-run column topic: Tribune Company is greedy. Oh Jay, you must have thought one, two seconds before coming up with that idea. Mariotti blathers on and on about the Tribune Company is greedy because the Cubs decided to start the game yesterday afternoon despite the rain. Mariotti hails crew chief Bruce Froemming for calling a rain delay in the fifth inning and blames the Cubs for starting the game in the first place because of Tribune Company's greed to collect the money from the tickets sold. Marriotti informs us he kept asking, "Why were they playing?" twice. Jay, they were playing because you can play baseball in light rain with gusty winds. As for the evil greed of the Tribune Company forcing the teams to play in the rain: yes, the decision to start the game belongs to the home team but the umpires can call a rain delay the moment the line-up cards are exchanged! If at any time after that moment the umpires wanted to call a rain delay they could have no matter what those "evil Tribsters" wanted. Furthermore Jay, the rain-out will likely be made up as part of a day-night double header in July, when a sell-out can be expected for both games. The Cubs will likely get a larger crowd for the make-up game than they were going to have yesterday so Jay's argument the greed of Tribune Company is to blame for why the game was being played yesterday is completely bogus. Sunday, May 11, 2003
SATURDAY'S GAME VS. ST. LOUIS: Kerry Wood got through seven innings, giving up 4 hits, and one earned run. Moises Alou with a home run in the sixth to tie the game up at 1-1. Terrible baserunning twice by Corey Patterson, once as he tried to go from first to third on a hit but wound up in a run-down between second and third; then sliding off second base while attempting a steal. Patterson tripled in the bottom of the seventh and Mark Grudzielanek blooped a single to score Patterson to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead. Joe Borowski blew the save in the ninth as the Cardinals tied it up 2-2. Alex Gonzalez saved the day with another game-winning home run in the bottom of the tenth to give the Cubs a 3-2 victory. MEL ROJAS AWARD: The Mel Rojas Award for bad relief pitching to Joe Borowski. Borowski blew the save in the top of the ninth. RUDY MEOLI AWARD: The Rudy Meoli Award for bad performance by a Cubs' infielder to Mark Bellhorn. Bellhorn was 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. SATURDAY'S GAME VS. ST. LOUIS: Kerry Wood got through seven innings, giving up 4 hits, and one earned run. Moises Alou with a home run in the sixth to tie the game up at 1-1. Terrible baserunning twice by Corey Patterson, once as he tried to go from first to third on a hit but wound up in a run-down between second and third; then sliding off second base while attempting a steal. Patterson tripled in the bottom of the seventh and Mark Grudzielanek blooped a single to score Patterson to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead. Joe Borowski blew the save in the ninth as the Cardinals tied it up 2-2. Alex Gonzalez saved the day with another game-winning home run in the bottom of the tenth to give the Cubs a 3-2 victory. MEL ROJAS AWARD: The Mel Rojas Award for bad relief pitching to Joe Borowski. Borowski blew the save in the top of the ninth. RUDY MEOLI AWARD: The Rudy Meoli Award for bad performance by a Cubs' infielder to Mark Bellhorn. Bellhorn was 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. |