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Message #: 15076
If the Cubs had any luck at all, we'd have come into this week playing about .750 ball. And during this series, we put on another one of our patented clinics as we drift back down to oblivion.... Game 1: Yet another choke, yet another league-leading one-run loss that, cumulatively (or perhaps just this one) will separate us from a pennant. Brooklyn breaks on top with a successful (of course) low-percentage steal of home; seconds later a Cub with a much higher chance to score from second on a hit is gunned. And then the see-saw goes in motion. We tie it up, choke it away on a passed ball, tie it up but carefully avoid taking the lead by loading the bases with 1 out and LOBbing them all. Finally a Marty Marion double puts us up 4-2 in the 8th, but 3 batters later it's 4-3 and starter Murry Dickson has been lifted in favor of Ace Arsonist Tiny Bonham. Ace got a DP to end the Brooklyn 8th, but he's often quite effective until.... The bottom of the 9th. First batter flies out, as does the one who followed. One pitch away from a save -- but who didn't see this coming? -- Bonham chokes up a 2-out game-tying gopher, a Cub Specialty for decades, and on it goes. In the 10th the Cubs get first-and-third with no outs. The runner on first had a 95% to get a jump for a SB and a 100% chance of success after getting the jump. So naturally he gets picked off. But despite the potential big inning being aborted by that most microscopically improbable event, we do get one run on a sac fly. And promptly give up 2 in the bottom of the frame. Final score: 6-5, our 8th one-run loss in barely 3 weeks of play and once again were just a hair away from having as many such losses as any other two teams combined. ========================================================= Game 2: It wouldn't be quite accurate to say that the Dodgers got 100% of the breaks today. In reality the percentage was much higher. Hank Behrman limited the Cubs to 2 hits, CHN starter Freddy Martin had a good day (1 BB, 9 K's) except for when the Dodgers swung the bats. Then it was a parade of surgically-precise split cards, and the Dodgers hit it big on every one of them. Mercifully they stopped scoring after the third inning, but they could easily afford to. Final score: 5-0. Despite being severely handicapped by having so few runners on base to begin with, we rose to the occasion and LOBbed just as many as the home team. ========================================================= Game 3: You know the story -- when the Cubs win a seemingly close game, it's nearly always just an incomplete choke. Although HAL was apparently umpiring at home plate today (he had the Cubs issue **TWELVE** free passes), CHN starter Paul Erickson somehow kept the Dodgers off the board entirely most of the way. The fact that he allowed just 5 hits in nearly 8 IP may have had something to do with that. Meanwhile, the Cubs treated our ex-arsonist Ellis Kinder without much respect as we built an early 5-0 lead before taking a nap during the middle innings. Two insurance runs in the 7th made the score 7-0 and any other team could have begun counting this as a win. Not so fast -- these are the Cubs. Three straight walks in the BRN 8th helped load the bases and then forced a run in with 2 outs. The 9th went much the same way, starting off with walks #11 and #12 off of reliever Emil Kush (last year's devastating arsonist) but that was all and 2 were out. Did I mention that these are the Cubs? So the Dodgers stopped taking pitches and, of course, began hammering them. A single plated one, a double chased home two more, and another double made it 7-5, all with just one more out to get (how familiar). A 7-run lead had existed moments earlier and now the tying run was at the plate. With nowhere else to turn, the Cubs went back to this year's devastating arsonist, and the ace closer notched his second save in 4 weeks by getting Howie Schultz to pop up. The Cubs still have more blown saves than successful ones, an accomplishment unique among the 14 major league teams. Alan |
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