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Message #: 17010
The Cubs, as is our habit, got very few breaks but didn't require many against a demoralized Boston team. The emerging story from this series is that with nearly a quarter of the season in the books, the Cubs are on pace to not merely break but absolutely obliterate a very UN-enviable record: In the 51 year period from 1944 to 1994, the 1966 White Sox hold the record of LOBbing 25.9% more runners than their opponents that season. The 1943 Cubs have so far stranded *51%* more runners than our ever-fortunate opponents. As to whether that can hold up over an entire season -- why not? The trend is actually getting worse instead of better.... Game 1: The usual story: lots of runners, no runs. Today the Cubs minimized their LOB advantage by hitting into FOUR timely rally-killing DPs and found themselves down 3-0 after 5 innings. A sac fly got the Cubs on the board at last in the 6th and some poor defense by the Braves over the next 2 frames (merely offsetting our earlier donations to the home team) finally resulted in a score that was commensurate with the actual play on the field. It wasn't pretty, but we'll take the come from behind 4-3 win. Murry Dickson, Chicago's shaky as hell Ace Arsonist, got the victory in relief of Claude Passeau. Shortstop Lennie Merullo continues to provide excellent relief for Marty Marion; Merullo went 4 for 4 today to raise his batting average to .438, which is about the same as his fielding percentage. ======================================================================== Game 2: The Braves came up with a few fortuitous split card triples, while the Cubs got a good split once every blue moon or so. BON starter Bobo Newsom was matching Chicago's Hi Bithorn for a while, until a surprising double from #9 (yes 9, he's earned that slot) hitting backup catcher Carlos Hernandez plated a pair of runs for the Cubs in the 4th to break a 1-1 tie. Bithorn (3-1, 3.22) went the distance in the 5-2 win and scattered 8 hits; 5 singles and 3 triples. ======================================================================== Game 3: The Cubs duplicated the 5-2 win today, but it required much drama to defeat the 7th place team. Boston led 2-1 after 8 innings as the Cubs were compiling a 13-5 lead in LOB -- the tone was set when we loaded the bases 3 batters into the contest, and scored not a single one of them -- and as usual couldn't purchase a break with the split cards. After 2 more Boston triples, we got one of our own when Lou Novikoff actually didn't miss a 1-15 chance (!) at one in the top of the 9th. The hit came off reliever Ken Trinkle, who had just replaced Boston starter Allie Reynolds (8+ IP, 2 runs, lotsa LOB) and scored Merullo, whose 2 for 5 day lowered his average. Mickey Witek followed with a single which tied the game, and Trinkle then grooved a pitch to powerful Bill Nicholson who deposited it into the stands for his 4th home run of the season. Dickson earned his second relief win of the series by being in the right place at the right time, and not choking for a change. ======================================================================== Game 4: LOB: Cubs - 13, Braves - 4, and a team can't keep winning games when it insists on doing that day after day after day, as today proved. CHN starter Jesse Flores was battered practically from the first pitch he threw as the Braves scored 2 quick runs, we finally got on the board in the 6th (1 run), but Boston crammed 4 of their 9 hits into the 8th inning and built a 4-1 lead, which is how it ended. CHN batters generously left 7 men in scoring position with 2 outs, much to the delight of Boston's Bill Zuber who raised his record to 4-1 (on a team that is 4-23 otherwise) and lowered his ERA to an astounding 1.71 by successfully dodging dozens of Cubbie bullets. Alan |
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