Final Record: 68-81
Games Behind First: 15.5 GB (Eliminated from Playoff Contention)
The Cubs finally showed on this road trip the formula that they could have been winning with all year long. They didn't necessarily use their high priced bats, but instead the pitching and defense. On Friday September 10th the Cubs set the tone for the trip with a dominating performance from the Big Z, who won his fifth straight decision to improve to 8-6. Zambrano headed into the 9th looking for a complete game shutout but after getting two outs and allowing Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder to reach base (single and error, respectively), the Z was done after 119 pitches. Carlos Marmol got Casey McGehee to fly out to right to end the game, giving the Cubs a 4-0 win. Ryan Dempster followed on Saturday night and did the same thing as Zambrano, except only holding his shutout until the seventh after which he was yanked. Dempster struck out eight in his 100th career win, his 13th of 2010. The only run in the game came from an Xavier Nady home run off the foul pole in left, making him the first Cub to do that this season. Randy Wolf had a good start but took the loss. Yovani Gallardo shut down the Cubs who were shut out themselves on Sunday. Ryan Braun's RBI double scoring Gallardo and Casey McGehee's homer in the 8th were the only runs in that game giving the series a combined run total of seven runs. Casey Coleman took the loss.
The Cubs may be frustrated with their year overall, but they certainly had to be feeling better than the Cardinals coming into St. Louis after the series win in Milwaukee. The Cardinals had basically fallen out of contention with the Reds and were almost certainly on their way to missing the playoffs for the third time in four years after being so close this season. It has been a real struggle for Jeff Samardzija in the big leagues in 2010 but he would have his best outing of the year so far on Monday night. He allowed ten baserunners in 5.2 innings but got a win and an RBI. The Cubs got four off Jaime Garcia on RBI singles from Geovany Soto, Samardzija, and Alfonso Soriano. Matt Holliday drove in the only run for the Cardinals, the only blemish for the Cubs bullpen. On Tuesday night Randy Wells returned near his home for the first time in the major leagues, starting in St. Louis for the first time. Wells got a win beating a frustrated Adam Wainwright who gave up five to the Cubs. Wells possibly had his best start of the season going eight innings and allowing just one, also hitting two RBI singles. It was the Big Z again Wednesday night, getting his second win on the road trip already. A Blake DeWitt sac fly early was the only Cubs run for a while, and the Cards put up two against Zambrano to hold the lead most of the game. In the 7th, though, with Chris Carpenter cruising, the Cubs put on two for Tyler Colvin who blasted his 20th homer of the year making him just the fourth Cubs rookie to hit 20 homers. Micah Hoffpauir added another run to make it 5-2. The Cards would get that run back but Aramis Ramirez hit a two-run homer in the 9th for more insurance and Carlos Marmol escaped a scary ninth for his 31st save of the season.
Next up for the Cubs was a trip down to Florida and Sun Life Stadium where the Cubbies are just 14-18 since 2000 including 3-9 since 2006. The Cubs would stay on their roll, though, coming out with another sweep. Ryan Dempster got another shutdown performance going seven and allowing no runs to improve to 14-10, and the Cubs won 2-0 thanks to Logan Morrison giving Soriano an RBI double and Geovany Soto an RBI double. Alex Sanabia got the unlucky loss. Casey Coleman had an average start on Saturday night, but got a win anyway. The Cubs got four runs in the 5th most notably on a Starlin Castro game-tying walk making it a 1-1 tie. Marlon Byrd then doubled home two and the Cubs never looked back. Carlos Marmol recorded his 33rd save of the year, but two great scoreless innings from James Russell, Justin Berg, and Andrew Cashner were key to hold the slim 5-3 lead. On Sunday afternoon Jeff Samardzija struggled with his command as usual but kept the Marlins scoreless until the 4th. It didn't really matter by then though, as the Cubs were already winning 8-0 at the time due to three bases loaded walks, a Welington Castillo RBI double and other various RBIs. Castillo would add a two-run homer later, his first in the bigs. On the double that scored a run from Castillo his bat broke, which in a freak accident hit Colvin in the chest who was on third. Colvin was hospitalized and his season was over, but he has still had a great rookie year.
I have a million questions about this spontaneous stretch of winning but that's just the season it has been for the Cubs, who knows why anything they do happens. They are officially a better road than home team and didn't come close to having a homestand as good as this road trip. With this road trip the Cubs improved to 35-39 on the road. The Cubs outscored their opponents 44-14 over these nine games, giving up about 1.5 runs a game. This is very, very impressive considering the way the bullpen has pitched all year. The starters, Dempster and Zambrano specifically, caught fire and the Cubs are proving that they could possibly win with a dismal offense but stellar pitching (see: Padres). Let's hope the Cubs can keep up this winning stuff because, as those Padres have shown us, a great September can translate into winning the next season.
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