Record: 5-4 Final Record:
Games Behind First: 19.5 GB
First a quick note about playoffs. My proposal in July (see: A Proposal to Turn Baseball Upside Down) isn't nearly the only potential playoff reform out there. On ESPN.com today is an interesting article by the ever-interesting Jayson Stark about a second wild card team in each league. Recommended reading for all fans looking for food for thought (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&page=rumblings1000909). Now on to the wrapup.
The Cubs finally got revenge against the Pirates, winning a series against them for the first time this season. The Cubs poured on 14 runs including one home run by a somewhat unlikely source. Carlos Zambrano homered to the opposite field, his first of the season, scoring Koyie Hill. Zambrano's 21 career homers are the most by any pitcher since the DH rule was adopted with a five homer lead over Mike Hampton. The Cubs put up seven in the fourth, and the game totals included four RBI off two hits from Aramis Ramirez, three hits for Starlin Castro, and two RBI each for Jeff Baker, Marlon Byrd, and Zambrano. Zambrano improved to 6-6 with an good start, going 5.1 innings with seven strikeouts and four walks. He allowed just one unearned run. Pittsburgh could only scrap together two runs late, making the final 14-2. They would scrap together nine before the Cubs could even score one the next night, with a final score of 14-7. Koyie Hill hit a two-run homer, his first of the season, and the Cubs would score five in the 8th thanks to RBI hits from Blake DeWitt, Castro, Micah Hoffpauir, Xavier Nady, and Alfonso Soriano. That was all the Cubs would get and Elias Sports Bureau came up with the stat after the game that the Cubs had allowed 14+ runs in seven games in 2010, the most in any single season for the Cubs franchise since 1897, where there were 12 such games. The schedule was about a third the size it is today, so that (18)'97 team must have really stunk. The following afternoon Kosuke Fukudome would help ensure the season series against the Pirates would finish with a win as he drove in the go-ahead run in the 3rd and the Cubs would never look back. Tom Gorzelanny left to injury after being drilled by a liner, so Thomas Diamond would come on and he got rattled, as he has in most of his appearances as part of an incompetent bullpen, but still earned the win.
While the season series against Pittsburgh closed with a 5-10 losing mark, the Mets have only played the Cubs four times back in April on the second road trip of the year. The Mets won three out of four then, and they would get off to another good start in the matinee opener Friday. David Wright doubled home two in the first and Joaquin Arias would bring in another. It would stay 3-0 until the 4th, when Nady singled home a run. Soriano then came up with two on, and he would bring them all home with a three-run blast, his 22nd of the year that was tied for the team lead. A Mets minor league callup doubled home the tying run in the 6th, but DeWitt would respond with another three-run homer. The Cubs bullpen made things interesting, like they always do, allowing homers to Wright and Luis Hernandez but Carlos Marmol saved #26 and they would sing 'Go Cubs Go' for the third time in three games on the homestand. Geovany Soto would double to left, his first big noise offensively in a while, in the 2nd inning Saturday to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead. Then a sac fly by X-Nady, as MLB Network Studio Host Matt Vasgersian calls him, made it 2-0. The Cubs never surrendered the lead but Carlos Zambrano gave up a homer in the 7th to Ike Davis, perhaps his biggest mistake of a nearly flawless outing. More on him in a minute. Andrew Cashner pitched the 8th giving up a run like he always does (give that man kudos for consistency, right?), and Marmol struck out the side to earn save #27. Starlin Castro became the first Cubs rookie in 66 years to have six straight multi-hit games. Back to Zambrano. He walked just two, keeping his biggest problem since his return to the rotation at a minimum. Recording eight strikeouts, he passed former teammate and rotation-mate Kerry Wood on the Cubs all-time strikeouts list, moving into third 1,411 passing Wood's total of 1,407. Ramirez also hit his 21st homer of the season in the 8th, extending the lead. That Elias Sports Bureau stat mentioned earlier in the post would change to eight such games this season when the Cubs allowed 14+ runs after an explosion of offense from the Mets on Sunday. The Mets would score five in the 5th, 8th, and 9th. This wasn't the Mets lineup off a few years ago with such formidable foes of Carlos Beltran in his prime, Carlos Delgado, David Wright, and Jose Reyes. In fact, Beltran was the only one of the three of those still on the team to play Sunday and he didn't even do most of the damage. 11 RBI came from rookies, who made up six of the eight position players in the lineup (Luis Hernandez, Ike Davis, Mike Hessman, Lucas Duda, Josh Thole and Robinson Tejada). Tejada picked up five RBI in the beatdown. The only action for the Cubs was three RBI from Ramirez including two from a homer, his 22nd.
The Cubs and Astros were in a good battle Monday, and the Cubs came out on the right side with five unanswered runs to win. Chris Johnson homered against the Cubs again, something he did last time at Wrigley Field, part of a four-run 2nd for Houston. Blake DeWitt knocked in a run in the 3rd right before Marlon Byrd unleashed a two-run tater to make it a one-run game. Two innings later Darwin Barney would score on an RBI double off the bat of Jeff Baker. The game would remain tied until the 8th, when Soto hit a bomb onto Waveland Avenue out of the ballpark to take the lead. Marmol saved #28. Rumors were swirling around that, with the wind blowing out of Wrigley Field perhaps the hardest all season, an Astros player hit a homer in batting practice over Waveland and onto the rooftop off the big yellow building right down the left field line. The distance up there is over 475 feet, and a homer has not been hit there since Glenallen Hill did it against the Brewers in a real game in 2000. As far as anyone knows, there is no video of the Astros player's homer or any word on who it was. My money would have to be on either Hunter Pence, Carlos Lee, or Chris Johnson who hit one 428 feet to center in the real game a few hours later. Carlos Silva made his first start since a heart condition forced him out of a start in Denver on August 1st. He didn't do too well and took the loss. Tyler Colvin picked up two RBI, but Michael Bourn topped that with three and Brett Wallace hit his first career homer on a depressing night at Wrigley. Looking to win their first series against Houston this season, the Cubs came up short against Brett Myers and lost 4-0. The loss clinched a losing record on the season at Wrigley, where home field advantage hasn't meant much of anything. Randy Wells had his typical mediocre start and Hunter Pence took him deep, one of the four runs Wells would give up. Myers has gone at least six innings in 29 straight starts, the longest streak in Astros history and the longest streak overall since Curt Schilling did that for 35 starts with Arizona in 2002.
The Cubs finish 5-4 on the homestand and will now head to Milwaukee, the team they have had the most success against in 2010. The road trip continues to St. Louis and Florida, before the last homestand of the year against San Francisco and St. Louis. Look for the continued participation of kids from the minors, something to keep an eye on for next year also. Some of these kids will be the faces of the franchise in a few years, kids like Castro and Colvin and Cashner, as the Cubs will likely turn over a lot of the roster this offseason.
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