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Message #: 15048
The luckless underachieving Cubs did once again this week what we always do so well -- lucklessly underachieve -- and settle for a split in a series that any other team would likely have swept. We did this by adding 2 more to our league-leading total (now 7, in just 18 games) of 1-run losses, which is only one shy of being as many as any other two teams COMBINED.... Game 1: Freddie Martin made his first start as a Cub and it was a good one, but not quite good enough. Martin made the mistake of only allowing zero runs, and if he wanted to win it needed to be less than zero. Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the first inning but also hit into out first of three timely DPs, and we later added two runners critically gunned down on the bases (another of our league-leading 'skills'). Martin completed 6.2 shutout innings and turned it over to the bullpen so they could choke it away. After the Cubs turned a leadoff triple in the 8th into -- of course -- zero runs, the Pirates got a 1-out surgical split card triple in their half of the frame and their 2-out RBI tied the game. CHN's Johnny Schmitz came on to start the 10th and choked it away without even allowing a hit: walk, walk, perfect bunt, perfect bunt, game over. Cubs find a way to lose yet another close one, 2-1. ====================================================== Game 2: In typical form, a team which loses every close game often scores way too many runs when they win. Like today, when the Cubs racked up 19 hits and 30 total bases and eked out a narrow 16-3 win. Jim Russell got the party started with an early Grand Slam, then tacked on 3 more RBI later. CHN starter Frank Papish took a no-hitter into the 5th, when it was broken up on a 2-out RBI single on a Si 1-3, lo 4-20, reflecting our usual luck on split cards. Emil Kush generously gave up a couple of Papish's runs in the 7th, but we added 7 runs after that, because you just never know how hard the Cubs might attempt to choke. Even one of those 12 surplus runs would have come in mighty handy in any other game, but we used them all up today instead. ====================================================== Game 3: Amazingly, the Cubs don't lose *every* close game, just almost all of them. And when we do win a close one it's practically never a rousing come-from-behind win of the kind our opponents achieve so often, it's merely an incomplete choke. Like today. The Cubs won a 1-run game in typical Cubbie fashion -- by taking a 3-run lead into the bottom of the 9th. As in game 1 we scored early, then went dormant, while our starting pitcher put up goose eggs and left it to the bullpen to choke. Jesse Flores kept the Pirates off the board entirely and our 2-0 lead held up through 8 innings. MVP candidate Phil Cavarretta's double plated what turned out to be a very important insurance run in the 9th, because ace arsonist Tiny Bonham (who had pitched 3 scoreless innings so far today) knew that the bottom of the 9th was his time to rise to the occasion. And so he did: after 1 out he loaded the bases with 2 walks sandwiched around a single. Schmitz replaced Bonham and was in full choking form: RBI single to make it 3-1, then a one-slim-chance-in-the-empty-column surgical walk to force in run #2 with still just 1 out and the bases still loaded. But Schmitz incredibly averted certain defeat by fanning Bill Salkeld and getting Red Schoendienst to pop up. Final score: 3-2. ====================================================== Game 4: In accordance with Strat Law, we atoned for our accidental game 3 win by forfeiting game 4, allowing Ed Bahr to pitch a 3-hitter while our suddenly non-existent offense ruined another good pitching performance by the Cubs. Final score: 2-1. Four straight singles in the PIN 4th -- all of them coming after 2 outs, natch -- comprised the Pittsburgh offense, while nothing at all comprised the Chicago attack. We did scratch out a run in the 5th and then fatally left the bases loaded, but both before and after that frame we got nothing. This game (and series, and season) was another example of our opponent's defense playing to near perfection on x-plays against the Cubs, as the Pirates converted an astounding 18 of 21 chances in these 4 games (even Ralph Kiner was at 100%!), a rate over 100 points greater than their season average on x-conversions. Kiner remained inert at the plate however (0 for 15), as his 1946 slump continues. Yet the Cubs still couldn't do any better than split.... Alan |
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