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Written by wrigleyville
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Wednesday, 03 October 2007 |
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In a valiant attempt to stay awake for this game, here is a live blog of Game One of the NLDS:
(Well, it's over and I stayed awake for the whole miserable thing. The Cubs pound out four stinking hits to waste a strong performance by Carlos Zambrano. Lots of work to do, starting later tonight.)
Inning Nine: Valverde and his 47 saves are on to wrap it up against the bottom third of the order. Soto hits a lazy fly ball to center. A Cubs fan in the fancy seats behind home plate just got in trouble for flashing a Cubs light at Valverde. Genius. Theriot strikes out. I'm beginning to think the Cubs might not win this game. Daryle Ward is on to pinch hit and save the day! He walks to bring up Soriano, who has been less than spectacular today. With Cedeno pinch running, Soriano quickly digs an 0-2 hole and grounds weakly into a fielder's choice.
Inning Eight: Brandon Lyon is on to face Aramis, Cliff and DeRosa. Ron Darling tells us he has only given up two home runs all year. Thanks, Ron. That was about eight feet from being number three. One out. Cliff was about 12 feet from being number three. Two outs. He isn't fooling anyone, but. ... DeRosa grounds out to third. About out of time.
Howry is on to face Baby Brother Drew. Struck him out (94, 94, 94, 94, 95, 95 mph, according to Gameday). It's 12:24 a.m. on the East Coast and Wrigleyville is sleepy. Howry strikes out Byrnes on three pitches (95, 95, 95 mph, according to Gameday, and I don't think Gameday would like to me). Clark flies out to Soriano (94, 94, 94, 95, according to Gameday). Pretty consistent. And effective, even.
Inning Seven: It appears Big Z is done, as he and Lou were having a talk in the dugout. Either that or they were planning a trip to the Olive Garden. You know he loves that bottomless salad bowl. Soriano taps out to the pitcher. His September momentum has not carried over thus far. Jacque grounds out weakly to first. This inning sucks so far. DLee looks bad in striking out. Ugh.
Fabulous job by Big Z. One bad pitch down the middle to Drew. Otherwise, six solid innings. One walk, four hits and eight strikeouts. Plus, he has a quarter of the Cubs hits as well.
Marmol is on for the bottom of the seventh. Mark Reynolds, who I had never heard of two hours ago, just homered to lead off the inning. Crap. Marmol gets Salazar on a nasty slider, then walks Snyder. He's laboring, and Lou comes out to have a nice conversation. TBS is going to a commercial, even though they aren't changing pitchers. Very confusing. OK, the Budweiser commercial was interrupted mid-stream. Augie doubles. Second and third. One out. At least that gets Webb out of the game, as Connor Jackson pinch hits. Sac fly to center. Jacque of course didn't have a chance and missed the cutoff man. Again. 3-1. Goodness, Marmol is all over the place. Young strikes out and there is much work to do.
In between the sixth and seventh innings, the Arizona fans played a quick round of Bingo and had their second juice break.
Inning Six: Frank Caliendo is quickly gaining on John Mellencamp on the list of people who annoy me during sporting events. Mellencamp has a full year of singing that song, however. DLee leads off the inning with a single. Maybe they can score from first with no outs, since it hasn't worked from second in two previous innings. Or maybe not. Aramis strikes out, though Lee advances to second as the ball slips away. Cliff lines a ball to right for out two to bring up Mark DeRosa. I'm predicting an RBI single. Nope. Walk. Two on. Two out. Here comes Soto. The Let's Go, Cubbies! chant is coming along nicely. Four-pitch walk to Soto. Bases loaded. Here comes Theriot. The Cubs sure have a lot of players whose names end with an O sound. Soto. Soriano. Theriot. Fontenot. Blanco. Zambrano. Lillyo. Bullpen is getting busy for the Arizonas. Theriot hits a chopper. Infield single. 1-1. Woo. Hoo. Zambrano is hitting for himself with bases loaded and two outs. Strike out, but back in the game.
TBS went to Ernie Johnson in the studio after the top of the sixth, but it wasn't halftime and Kenny and Charles weren't there. Just the Big Hurt and Cal Ripken Jr.
Big Z strikes out Chris Young (no, not that Chris Young) to bring up Baby Brother Drew, who happily does not homer this time. Just a single to left. Carlos Marmol is up in the pen. Hey! Tonight's leadoff line is brought to you by Traveler's Insurance! Byrnes pops out. Two outs. Tony Clark grounds out to Theriot.
Note: My bafflement with the Diamondbacks roster should not be viewed as a sign of derision or disrespect. I simply have never watched them because none of their players are on my fantasy team (or many others, quite frankly) and they play in the middle of the night.
Inning Five: The Riot reaches on an error by Reynolds, who apparently plays third base for the Diamondbacks. Big Z lines out to the shortstop, and Theriot sneaks back to second. Um, why wasn't Zambrano bunting there? Soriano goes to 2-0 in his third at bat before lining out to center. Theriot still standing at second. Too bad he wasn't on third. JJ grounds out to first on one pitch (nice play by Clark). You get the sense the Cubs are going to get to Webb one of these innings. Or at least I do.
DeRosa makes a nifty play to rob Jeff Salazar of a single to center to open the bottom of the fifth. Zambrano strikes Snyder out on a 94 mph fastball. Augie singles off the glove of Zambrano, which means the pitcher's spot won't lead off the sixth. Zambrano begins nibbling and throws two straight balls to Webb. Stop it. Please. That's better: struck him out.
Um, what is with In Dayton We Trust? Royals fans rooting against the Cubs? Don't we share a common loathing of the Cardinals? What happened to the concept of the enemy of my enemy is my friend? C'mon guys.
Inning Four: Aramis flies out to deep right field. The home plate umpire is wandering around the infield during Cliff's at-bat. TBS promptly shows a prolonged shot of Lou's ear. When we return, Cliff strikes out looking, as Darling and Dick Stockton marvel at the number of Cubs fans in Arizona, their longtime Spring Training home. Webb plunks DeRosa. Somewhere in Chicagoland, cubbiejulie is cursing Brandon Webb. Soto grounds out to the shortstop. Poop.
In between innings, the jumbotron shows the Wipe-The-Drool-From-Your-Spouse's-Chin Cam, a wildly popular cousin to the more prevalent Kiss Cam.
Baby Brother Drew leads off the bottom of the fourth with a long homer to right. There is much rejoicing. Byrnes lines out to Soriano, who doesn't even have time to hop. Whew, Clark loops a lazy fly ball to Soriano, who gets to hop. Stockton says Soriano explained it by saying he doesn't want to wait for the ball to get to him. Seems logical. That Reynolds person struck out to end the fourth. Z did a good job of settling down after the leadoff bomb.
Inning Three: Channeling Rick Sutcliffe (Game 1 of the '84 NLCS), Big Z hits a rocket into the gap for a leadoff double. Alert the media: Soriano takes a pitch! And another! Alas, he strikes out on a slooooow (72 mph, according to Gameday) breaking ball. JJ does the same, except he went after a pitch in the dirt. And DLee strikes out on three pitches. The geriatrics are going nuts in Arizona. But they'll have to leave soon for their juice break and the Murder, She Wrote-Matlock double feature. 1 hit, no runs, 1 left.
(This is a good time to mention that I like Ron Darling. He does a good job without being too talky or too obvious (see McCarver, Tim). Plus, he was available after the Mets collapse.)
Meanwhile, Augie Ojeda remembers his Cubs days fondly and grounds out to second on one pitch. Gracias, Aguie! Brandon Webb strikes out looking. He's no Micah Owings. Of course, none of the Diamondback hitters are Micah Owings. That's three Ks for Big Z. Make it four, as Chris Young (no, not that Chris Young) strikes out and feels shame. No hits, no runs, none left.
Inning Two: Cliff Floyd comes about as close to hitting on strike three as I did in Delaware County, PA. Mark DeRosa squirts a single to right for the Cubs first hit, and Soto takes a pitch. See that veterans: he took a pitch, which leads to a 5-3 groundout nonetheless. (Meanwhile, my TBS keeps freezing mid-pitch, which really increases the anticipation factor, but is very, very annoying.) Theriot, trying to be like the big boys, ground out on the first pitch. 1 hit, no runs, 1 left. Brandon Webb has thrown 24 pitches through two innings.
In the bottom half, Zambrano gets Mark Reynolds to ground weakly to second before walking someone named Jeff Salazar, who doesn't take his bat of his shoulder in five pitches. I wouldn't swing, either, if I were Jeff Salazar (.277 BA, .394 slug in 94 at-bats). Happily, Chris Snyder quickly grounds into an inning-ending double play. If you were Chris Snyder (.252, .433) facing a control-challenged Carlos Zambrano, would you swing?
Inning One: Jacque Jones squeezes in a walk among remarkable impatience among the big three. Looks like the Dusty years and April all over again. No hits, no runs, 1 left.
Big Z follows this by allowing a Chris Young (no, not that Chris Young) leadoff single and stolen base. He recovers nicely by striking out Baby Brother Drew, coaxing Eric Byrnes into a 6-3 groundout and striking out 87-year-old Tony Clark. 1 hit, no runs, 1 left.
CORRECTION: Tony Clark is 35, a year younger than me. Bastard.Labels: Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs
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