CARDINALS SERIES WRAP-UP: SCOTTSDALE -- What can I say. A great series of thrilling games concluded with the Cubs winning four of five games from the Cardinals. Both teams played great, sadly the umpiring was truly awful. I thought the umpiring about as terrible as it could get in Tuesday's double header. In Game 1, St. Louis's Albert Pujols clearly caught a fly ball then dropped the ball when taking it out of his glove but it was called a dropped fly ball. In Game 2, with the bases loaded the Cubs' Moises Alou clearly hit a fair ball down the left field line which should have been an extra base hit for Alou but was instead ruled foul. Then yesterday came and the umpiring was truly awful. Sammy Sosa was called out on check swing where he clearly checked his swing. On top of it Sosa got ejected for saying something under his breath on the way back to the dugout. Next up was Moises Alou who hit a blooper to right which fell in. Mark Grudzielanek was on first and clearly made it to second as Edgar Renteria was not on the bag and had to tag Grudzielanek and obviously tagged him after Grudzielanek was on second base, never mind said the ump who called Grudzielanek out. Then we had Shawn Estes throw strike after strike on the outside corner which were called balls. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild had enough and got tossed as well. Randall Simon almost got tossed in the eighth because of arguing on terrible strike call where he clearly did not swing at a pitch that was way outside but was called a swinging strike by the home plate umpire. Despite this awful umpiring yesterday the Cubs came back to win again. Wednesday comeback though was incredible. I really thought the Cubs were sunk when they trailed 6-0. Incredibly the Cubs came back to win 8-7, scoring twice in the bottom of the eighth to get the lead. A great series which was truly enjoyable.
posted by Thomas at 4:58 PM
