Tagged: Ballgames

Brooms out at Wrigley!

Cubs swept the Pirates for the second time in almost in little over a week with a 13-6 victory. The Cubs have scored 26 runs in two games. They’ve had 30 hits with 10 of those as extra base hits.

The Cubs take on the Mets at 7:05 PM (Eastern). John Maine is on the hill for the Mets. Carlos Zambrano looks for his third win of the season for the Cubs.

Brooms out in Pittsburgh

After a rocky first inning, Cubs lefty starter Rich Hill settled down and kept the Cubs close in a 7-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Cubs got ahead early when Derek Lee grounded to Priates third baseman Jose Bautista allowing Alfonso Soriano to score.

In the bottom of the first, Rich Hill gave up a double to Nate McLouth who would later score on a single by Freddy Sanchez. The Pirates got two more runs, making it a 3-1.

Cubs would score again in the fifth off of a Lee fly ball.

 

Kosuke Fukudome walked and Geovanny Soto connected for a two run home to give the Cubs lead. Ryan Theriot connected for a bunt single and later scored off a Reed Johnson single.

 

With Johnson on base, Mike Fontenot hit the second home run of the inning making the score 7-3.

A full recap will come tomorrow. 🙂

Box scores

 

Chi Cubs AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG
Soriano, LF 5 2 2 0 0 1 2 .163
Fontenot, 2B 5 1 2 2 0 0 2 .417
Lee, 1B 4 0 0 2 0 1 2 .300
Ramirez, 3B 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 .222
Fukudome, RF 4 1 0 0 1 0 1 .371
Soto, C 5 1 4 2 0 0 0 .333
Theriot, SS 3 1 2 0 1 0 1 .250
Pie, CF 2 0 0 0 0 2 3 .182
  Lieber, P 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000
  Howry, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
  Wood, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
Hill, R, P 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .000
  Johnson, CF 2 1 1 1 1 0 0 .389
Totals 36 7 11 7 3 5 17  
BATTING
2B: Soto 2 (3, Morris, Morris), Soriano (1, Morris).
HR: Soto (2, 6th inning off Morris, 1 on, 0 out), Fontenot (1, 6th inning off Morris, 1 on, 2 out).
TB: Soriano 3; Fontenot 5; Soto 9; Theriot 2; Johnson.
RBI: Lee 2 (6), Soto 2 (8), Johnson (4), Fontenot 2 (2).
2-out RBI: Fontenot 2.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Hill, R; Pie; Lieber; Lee.
S: Lieber.
SF: Lee.
GIDP: Fukudome.
Team LOB: 8.

BASERUNNING
SB: Johnson (1, 2nd base off Meek/Paulino), Soriano (2, 2nd base off Morris/Paulino).
CS: Theriot (1, 3rd base by Morris/Paulino).

FIELDING
DP: 2 (Fontenot-Theriot-Lee 2).
Chi Cubs IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Hill, R 3.0 3 3 3 4 3 0 5.00
Lieber (W, 2-1) 4.1 5 0 0 0 1 0 0.00
Howry (H, 3) 0.2 0 0 0 0 0 0 8.44
Wood 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.00

 

Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG
McLouth, CF 5 1 2 0 0 0 1 .391
Sanchez, F, 2B 4 1 1 1 0 1 2 .214
Bay, LF 3 1 1 0 1 0 1 .267
LaRoche, 1B 3 0 1 0 1 0 1 .129
Nady, RF 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 .308
Paulino, C 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 .308
Bautista, 3B 3 0 0 1 0 1 4 .194
Bixler, SS 3 0 0 0 0 1 2 .000
  b-Morgan, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .200
Morris, P 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 .250
  a-Mientkiewicz, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .300
  Meek, P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000
  c-Doumit, PH 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .355
Totals 31 3 8 3 4 4 12  
a-Flied out for Morris in the 7th. b-Grounded out for Bixler in the 9th. c-Flied out for Meek in the 9th.
BATTING
2B: McLouth (7, Hill, R), Morris (1, Lieber).
TB: McLouth 3; Sanchez, F; Bay; LaRoche; Paulino 2; Morris 2.
RBI: Sanchez, F (3), Nady (10), Bautista (4).
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Bixler; Bautista; Sanchez, F.
SF: Nady; Bautista.
GIDP: LaRoche; Bautista.
Team LOB: 7.

FIELDING
E: Sanchez, F (2, fielding), Bautista (3, missed catch).
DP: (Bixler-Sanchez, F-LaRoche).
Pittsburgh IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Morris (L, 0-1) 7.0 11 7 4 2 3 2 5.25
Meek 2.0 0 0 0 1 2 0 13.50

Pie powers Cubs to win in 15

Felix Pie came through bigtime for the Cubs in the top of the 15th with a two-out, two-run game winning single.

Ryan Dempster pitched seven solid innings, allowing only one hit, walking two and striking out five. What is more remarkable is that he allowed only one baserunner to get to the second and he retired 20 of the last 21 hitters he faced. He did not, get the win, however thanks to closer Kerry Wood’s failure to close the game out.

The Cubs are now 2-1 in extra inning games and have moved to 5-3 on the season.

The Cubs go for the sweep tonight at 7 E.T. Rich Hill faces off against Matt Morris.

Cubs win, Lee and Fukudome shine

The Cubs captured its second win of the season with a 9-7 victory over the Houston Astros Saturday.

Derek Lee went 4-for-4, hitting his second homerun of the season and a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.

Kosuke Fukudome shined again keeping the Cubs in the game.

Question to Cubs fans:

How long has it been since they’ve had to bow to a rightfielder?

It’s been awhile.

A repeat of last year?

In Wednesday’s game, Felix Pie missed the cutoff man that cost the Cubs a run. Giovanni Soto made an ill-advised throw that sailed into centerfield. This is a repeat of last year where the Cubs struggle defensively early on.

This is something they work on for six and a half weeks at Spring Training. They work on making those throws from the outfield. They work on those throws from the plate to the infield. Yet, the Cubs looked like a bunch of little leaguers playing their first game.

It’s sickening. Alfonso Soriano is 0 for 9 with three strikeouts. He’s moving back to the lead-off spot for Thursday’s finale against the Brewers. And to make matters worse, Ryan Dempster is starting the game.

There’s no sense in throwing the season away yet. After all, there’s 160 more to go. It’s time to get a handle on the basics and play some good solid ball.

 

Cubs drop another one, Lee and Soto get homeruns

The Cubs dropped another game 8-2 against the Brewers Wednesday.

Fukudome went 0 for 3 drawing a walk. Derek Lee and Giovanni Soto connected for their first home runs of the season.

In post-game notes, Soriano will be moving back to the lead-off spot for tomorrow’s game.

Tomorrow’s line-up pits Ryan Demptster against Dempster in the finale.

 

Game 2: Starting lineup

The Cubs aren’t altering their line-up from Monday. They’re going to stick with the O-fers at the beginning:

 

Theriot, SS
Soriano, LF
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Fukudome, RF
DeRosa, 2B
Soto, C
Pie, CF
Lilly, LHP

 

I pulled this off of the Cubs Vine Line blog…

 

Kosuke Fukudome reached base in each of his four plate appearances Monday, including the three-run home run Michael reflected on in yesterday’s post.

According to Cubs historian and Vine Line contributor Ed Hartig, Fukudome is just the 12th player since 1956 to notch multiple hits and RBI in his Cubs debut. Of those 12, he was just the fifth to accomplish the feat in his major-league debut. He joins a list that includes Ron Santo (June 26, 1960 at Pittsburgh).

He was the first to homer in his Cubs debut since Henry Rodriguez on March 31, 1998 at Florida.

 

That’s pretty remarkable.

Go Cubs!

Cubs drop opener, Fukudome shines going 3-for-3

The Cubs dropped the home opener 4-3 in ten innings on Monday, but welcome to Chicago Kosuke Fukudome! I’m betting that today, he’s going to get a standing ovation in right field.

kosuke.jpgAnd impressive start going 3-for-3 just one triple shy of going for the cycle. Down 3-0 in the bottom of the ninth, Fukudome worked the count before smacking the ball into the bleachers to tie it up.

Carlos Zambrano continues his streak of not getting a decision (or a win) on opening day. He went out with cramps. He appears to be okay, just needs to drink more water. But he did look good, which is better than he has in his previous opening starts which at the time was over 18.00 ERA.

Kerry Wood celebrates his tenth year as a Cub (he is the longest serving current Cub). Wood didn’t pitch worth a **** in the ninth. But it doesn’t matter, Howry gets the loss in the end. The bullpen screwed it up once again.

But then again, you can’t soley blame the pitching. The Cubs did only scrape together five hits, three of which went to Fukudome.

Cubs play again today with Lilly taking the mound against Jeff Suppan.