Cubs Lose Opener
It's great to have baseball back. It sucks that the Cubs had to lose their first game, 4-3 to the Brewers in extras, but in the grand scheme of things it's just one game and nothing to get too worked up about.
Because of the rain delays, all of the big plays happened after I left the office (and my RealAudio) at 5pm. So I was forced to follow the critical action on my phone. (What did people do before 3G?) Do you know how deflating it was to see that Wood gave up 3 in the top of the 9th? Do you know how thrilling it was to read "K. Fukudome homered to Right, D. Lee and A. Ramirez scored"? It's obviously not as awesome as watching it live but I had to to give a muted cheer on the train as it pulled into my stop. By the time I got to my car, of course, Howry had coughed up the game, and this time it was for good.
Some thoughts on the individual efforts...
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Kosuke Fukudome - it's pronounced KOH-SKAY FOO-KOO-DOH-MAY. Learn it. Love it. How about that for a debut, eh? He was so awesome that I didn't even mind much when he got caught off the bag. (On that, he must not be familiar with Jason Kendall, or else he would have known about his throwing arm and just ran to a base. There's no way Kendall nails him. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to live with the 3-for-3 with a 3-run game-tying homer, a double, and a walk.)
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Carlos Zambrano - like Ben Sheets, pitched a great game (though I think all the goose eggs were partly due to the weather. As Lou said in the post-game press conference, "it was tough to hit.") Zambrano, of course, left early with cramps due to dehydration. In 60 degree weather. Pat said on the radio that Zambrano doesn't like drinking water. That sounds really, really weird, so I don't know if I believe it. But if it's true, boy, they gotta get him some gatorade or something. Fast. It's going to warm up in 10 weeks.
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Carlos Marmol - awesome. Kerry Wood and Bobby Howry? Not so much. Seems like it was just yesterday that I was touting the bullpen as one of the team's major strength. Oh yeah, it was.
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Pie, Theriot - didn't look good at all today. Let's hope they have big games Wednesday and avoid an early slump. That's always something to worry about with young players.
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Lou Piniella - I can't disagree with any of the moves. They just didn't work out today.
And that's pretty much that. One game in back of the Brewers with 161 to play. Time to start winning. GO CUBS!