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Message #: 15364
Another week, another exhibition that could be staged only by the Cubs. We played the #1 team in baseball on BETTER than even terms for 3 games and came out pretty much with squat to show for it. And then there was a fourth game, where things got considerably worse.... Game 1: CHN starter Hank Wyse had a 2-0 lead (woulda been 3-0 but for a Cub runner gunned at the plate) against the mighty Red Sox but saw it erased in the 6th on a home run by Teddy Ballgame leading off the frame. Wyse completed the inning successfully after that, then was relieved by Murry Dickson. Whose first batter rolled a HR 1-3, fb(B) 4-20. Have you ever known a Cub opponent to miss on an important split card draw? Don't be silly. Of course the batter got the '1' and Dickson got the "Perfect Sambito", but the game wasn't quite over yet. The Cubs brought in our only reliever (Hi Bithorn) who has a stadium named after him and 6 pitches later he'd racked up 2 strikeouts. The pair of two-out singles which followed would have been meaningless except for our 1e6 at 1B picking the most critical time to choke up an error. Bithorn went to pieces and lost the strike zone completely, giving Boston 2 unearned runs in the cheapest way possible, via 2 free passes. NOW the game is over. But not before we get a pair of runs in the 8th (and then HAL has our other Gold Glove infielder choke up an error). Final score: 5-4, one more in our massive collection of unearned, undeserved 1-run losses. Nobody does it better. ===================================================== Game 2: A great duel between Johnny Schmitz and 20-game winner Boo Ferriss, who combined to allowed 3 runs in 17 IP. The Cubs got a runner to 3rd with 0 outs in the first and so the game remained scoreless until the Cubs scratched out a run in the 4th, and Schmitz quickly rose to the occasion and gave it back. Schmitz then popped into a bunt DP in the 5th, and the Cubs had another runner gunned at the plate in the 6th, but Schmitz was getting the job done on the mound at least. Neither team seriously threated to score until the 10th inning, when the Cubs got a leadoff single and a sac bunt which set up an RBI situation for Ineffective Pinch Hitter Frank Secory, who surgically found the out in his loaded 3 column. But Eddie Waitkus atoned for his devastating error in game 1 by coming through with the game-winning RBI. Final score: 2-1 (the ever rare one-run win!). Dickson got the W with 2 innings of scoreless relief, and Paul Erickson pitched an easy bottom of the 10th to earn his 7th save. ===================================================== Game 3: We now resume our regularly scheduled hosing. The Cubs had baserunners galore today, but LOBbed 10 despite FOUR timely DPs hit into. Who would have thought that the Red Sox would need so much help to beat the lowly Cubs, but sure enough yet ANOTHER error by our Gold Gove shortstop -- with a non-hitting pitcher at the plate, natch -- opened the floodgates for some unearned scoring in the Boston 5th, while we terminated rallies with costly DPs in the next two frames. The 7th was a perfect Cubbie display, as we loaded the bases with 0 outs, our top hitter then of course fanned, setting up the inning-ending DP. Bravo. We then got a 1-out triple in the 8th.... no score. After those dozens of missed opportunities, we did get a sac fly in the 9th which tied the score at 3, but in the 10th we loaded the bases yet again, scored not at all yet again, this time via our umpteenth runner gunned at the plate. Seconds later, the umpteenth timely error by the #1 defense in the N.L. gave Boston the 4-3 win and -- we're just SO good at this -- the umpteenth unearned, undeserved one-run loss for the Cubs. A league-leading 28th to be exact, and a league-leading 11th loss in extra innings for the unluckiest team on the face of the earth. ===================================================== Game 4: What does it look like when one team gets breaks on 0% of split cards and the other team gets 100%? It looks like this, and you had to know the Cubs were "one team" not "the other team". Even in the midst of all that fatal split card surgery, HAL found time to have the #1 defense in the N.L. choke up FOUR more unearned runs, but they were hardly necessary. Final score: 12-1. How often does a team being outscored by 11 runs LOB twice as many runners as their fortunate opponent? We came pretty close today (9-5) and would have had it except for a DP that erased our 10th runner before we could LOB him. Comic reliever Emil Kush won today's arson contest, taking only 2 batters to allow a gopher while Murry Dickson needed 3 batters before he choked one up. A scrub outfielder named Tom McBride entered today's contest with 0 triples, left with 2 following HAL's surgical split card extravaganza that had the Cubs on the short end of ELEVEN split-card hits for the home team. Alan |
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