58-40 2 GMs up on the St. Louis, 3 up on Milwaukee
The Week that Was:
Game 1- There were a whole lot of Cubs in the AS game, so I'll count that as game 1. I'll start with saying that the best part of the game was that I was in Mexico and didn't have to listen to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Now onto the game: The Cubs pitching was yay. Carlos Zambrano pitched 2 efficient innings, giving up only a hit, striking out Alex Rodriguez, getting Derrek Jeter to GIDP, and picking off Milton Bradley, all on only 20 pitches. Ryan Dempster pitched an inning, K'ing 3. Which makes him the first AS pitcher to K 3 in the 9th inning or later in a while. Carlos Marmol came on a corrected his woes. Marmol, who was very excited to be an AS, hopefully will use it to boost confidence and regain his former uber- dominating self. The hitters on the other hand did disapoint. Aramis was the only to reach base, before being lifted by pinch-runner Cristian Guzman, who had to replace AmRam at 3rd even though he had never played at 3rd before in his career. The NL ended up losing the 15th from a combination of bad preformences by Clint Hurdle, Edinson Volquez, Billy Wagner, Dan Uggla and Brad Lidge.
Game 2- Coming into the game the Cubs knew they could count on Jim Edmonds to provide offense, having crushing Brian Moehlr in his career. Unfortunately for the Cubs that was the only offense they could record. The team managed only 4 hits, 1 BB and 1 R, a Jim Edmonds 5th inning HR (11). But the Cubs remained in the game with a nice preformence by Ted Lilly (7 IP 6 K 2 BB 1 ER). After a Miguel Tejada leadoff 2b in the 9th of Bob Howry, Hunter Pence ended the game in walkoff fashon. The Cubs lose 1-2
Game 3- I cannot comment much on the game, other than what I can decipher from the box score. But when the only runs come off the bat of your pitcher (Zambrano's 2nd HR on the year) and you draw 0 walks, it's going to be a long day. Unfortunately for the Cubs, their starting pitching couldn't keep them in this game. Z had one of his worst outings of the season, walking 6. Bright spots for the Cubs include a 3-4 preformence by Ryan Theriot and 1.2 scoreless innings by Chad Gaudin, who has allowed only 1 baserunner in his last 4.2 IP. Cubs lose 4-1
Game 4- The offense woke up today, it wasn't the offense of the first half of the season as they still drew 0 walks. 3 RBI days from Derrek Lee and Mike Fontenot, including Fontenot's 8th HR of the season off of Brandon Backe, were plenty for Cubs starter Ryan Dempster. Dempster recorded his first road victory of the season,.going 8 scoreless innings, walking only 1 while striking out 7. Mike in now hitting .371 in Jult with 4 HRs. Carlos Marmol threw a scoreless inning in his first outing since the break.
Deed