Familiarity

Something familiar about Dusty Baker losing games at Wrigley.

Something familiar about Pie's line tonight. 0 - 4 with 3 K's and 4 LOB. Nice. I hope he wasn't watching another familiar face -- Corey "First Felix" Patterson going 0 - 4 for the Reds. Corey only whiffed once, because he's getting better.

Dempster 2 - 0. Ha. I never would have figured that. But to his credit, I hear that he worked his ass off during the off season to get ready. There's a novel approach. Hard working athletes. Don't they have shots for that?

Speaking of novels, anyone finish Shike yet? I am so ready to make another recommendation. Next one is as good.

Soriano strained his calf? How? Oh well, Fontenot led off and we got the win. DeRosa did fine, and hit great. I'm liking this Reed Johnson more and more, too. Nice pinch hit from him. So if Sori is out for a while...do we bring Murton up? Or let Johnson play left and leave Pie in center?
Just wondering. I'd go with Murton. He's got to be burning to play.

I didn't see the game, but it read great after the fact. Nice to see DLee off to a good start. Let's sweep the Reds.

Go Cubs.

Go Jebu.

Exposed

Most of our weaknesses were exposed this weekend against the Phillies. Starting pitching. Timely hitting. Leadoff hitter. How long do you go with a guy hitting under .170 in the one spot? It could be worse -- we could have spent big $$$ on Andruw Jones! He's ripping the ball to the tune of .105 so far. Yikes -- he and JP make one outfielder who can't hit or throw. That's brutal. You know what? If the Braves let someone get away...think hard on it -- they usually don't do that if you have any talent left. What do you say about Andruw, Mojo? Was it the juice?

As I previously suggested, the Diamondbacks look real good...and may be hard to beat for the NL. I know it's early, but they have a nice combo of pitching and quality youth.

Go Dempster. Our new number 2. Wow.

Winning and losing

Point. It's important to win games. Point. It's important not to lose games. There is a difference, and good teams know it.

In that 15 game that we all but gave away? We did what we had to do "not to lose it" and the same with that game where we squandered the 7 run lead. Last night? We won it. And now we are 6 and 3 with 5 wins in a row and looking pretty good, albeit tired from all the extras.

I think to be a top tier team, there have to be about 20 to 25 wins a year of games that have "gotten away". That first game of the year would have been a great example. Fukudome hits that three run banger off Gagne and we almost come back to win. That was a lost game, and would have been a huge win. Even so, I think it gave us hope, and introduced us to a clutch guy named Kosuke. Past Cub teams would have folded in one or both of those first two games with the Pirates. Dusty's team would have. Lou's team did not. Good for them. I think it's a good sign.

Kudos to Leiber. Kudos to Soto and Fontenot. And kudos to Lou for pulling Hill when he did. I say put Marshall in the rotation until Hill shows that he knows what the strike zone is.

Go Cubs.

JS

Extra innings

Too bad. Dempster pitched one hell of a game. Bullpen, as is usual, blew it for him. How ironic is that?

If Dempster can keep that up...he could be our number two.

At least we seem to have something going for us this year...we are winning extra inning games so far.

Rich Hill needs to step it up and pitch long into the game tonight.

Note: obtusity is my specialty, but that was an "inside blog" to anyone who might have taken my literary recommendation seriously.

JS

Jebu

One heck of a Zinja, no?

It was a win

Lou says after the game "I'd rather win ugly than lose pretty" and that sums it up, I guess. Some people had a very good game -- others not so. It didn't need to go 12 innings, but at least we got the W. Good job, Leiber. Shit job, Lilly. Biggest problem? Guys swinging for the fences when a single will do. And Soriano batting .093 and still leading off. Yeah, that's the guy I want getting the most at bats -- the guy hitting under a buck. Right. Bat him 7 or 8 for a while. Reed Johnson was 1 for 3 with 2 walks. Good pick up.

Brian Roberts watch. 3 -4 with a couple of runs scored.

More later. Or not. You never know.

JS

by the way, my "make the pitcher work" stats still hold -- although only 6 of 11 yesterday. Team that sees the most pitches and gets the most walks wins.

AOL headlines

2 headlines caught my eye this morning:

1. Pirates hold 30 hostages -- tough way to describe Pittsburgh baseball fans, I think.
2. How big is the smallest black hole? -- I wouldn't know, never having been in an interracial relationship, but isn't that awfully personal?

AOL is weird.