Game 74 Recap: Cubs 4, White Sox 3

Daylight Drama

W - Wood (4-1), back-to-back jack winners, Aramis Freakin' Ramirez, A day's worth of bragging rights, listening to stunned silence of Hawk and DJ

L - Linebrink (2-2), Blithering idiocy, Hawk Harrelson, listening to blithering idiocy, listening to three hours of Hawk Harrelson's blithering idiocy

Box Score, Photos

Things to Take from This Game

1. Quality starts by the lefties

Lilly continued to have problems with the Home Run ball, giving up a solo shot to Dye in the second and a two-run blast to Pierzynski in the third.  Those wound up being the only runs the Cubs gave up, as  Lilly worked out of trouble in both the fifth and sixth.  Danks had a stronger game, striking out five and walking none, and left with a 3-1 lead.  He only gave up a run-scoring GIDP to Lee in the first.  However...

2. No Contest in the Battle of the Bullpens

Dotel came in for the seventh, and promptly surrendered back-to-back jacks to Lee and Ramirez.  Howry by contrast got the last out of the seventh and had an easy eighth, while Wood survived a near-miss home run that only registered as a leadoff double, and got out of the ninth without damage.  That set up the bottom of the ninth, where... 

3. Ramirez Walks Off

Aramis hit his second home run of the game, this one off of Linebrink and to dead center into the juniper bushes. Cubs win a great game, 4-3.

 

 The "why did you miss this game, and need to rely on my thrilling recap?" details, below.

Game Recap

Inning 1 - Top

• Cabrera with a lazy fly to Fukudome in center.
• Pierzynski with a soft pop towards teh very shallow left field foul line that Theriot runs out for, catching it a few paces behind Ramirez.
• Quentin hits one well into the right-center gap, but DeRosa makes a nice running catch.

Inning 1 - Bottom

• Fukudome with a swinging bunt a third of the way up the third base line. Danks makes a poorly advised and more poorly executed throw to first, Swisher makes a fantastic save. Fukudome safe, either way
• Theriot hits one into the right-center gap. Anderson races over to keep Theriot to a single. Fukudome to third.
• And Danks almost throws one away on the pickoff at first.
• Lee has a 1-2 count, checks his swing on a pitch that looked pretty close on the inside corner. Gets the ball call, and the checked swing call. Phew. 2-2 count. Backed off by another pitch for a 3-2 count. Nice job coming back from 0-2.
• Lee with a hard-hit ball right at Cabrera, 6-4-3 GIDP, but run scores.
• Ramirez also goes from 0-2 to 3-2, before K's swinging.

Inning 2 - Top

•  Dye hits an 0-1 pitch onto Waveland.  Looked like a letter-high rolling curve.Tie game.
• Swisher with a soft blooper to right, DeRosa runs in for the catch.
• Crede bounces one to his third-base coach, who gives it to a middle-aged guy in the first row who is wearing a two-billed cap.  Facing in opposite directions, he has stitched together a Cubs hat and a Sox hat, so he can flip one bill or the other to the front as needed.  Cute. 
  
  • Recovering from my moment of gullability, I guess it must be something he bought from a vendor.  Still a cute idea.
• Long AB by Crede, finally K's swinging at a fastball
• Alexei Ramirez is very, very slight of stature
  • And of course he immediately turns on one, hitting a double into the left-field well.
  • I mean really, this guy is skinnier than I was in high school.  That's skinny.
• and Anderson K's swinging, stranding the runner.

Inning 2 - Bottom

•  Soto grounds an outside fastball through the 6-5 hole.  On the WGN TV broadcast DJ observes that the Cubs are attacking the first-pitch fastball
• and indeed, DeRosa fouls off the first-pitch fastball.
• DeRosa fists a weird little blooper towards Ramirez at second.  He's near the bag, but makes this too-soft shovel pass to Cabrera.  Nice job by Cabrera to wait for it, get off the bag, and turn the double play.
• Murton's huge quads line one to center for a hit.
• Cedeno lined out to left.

Inning 3 - Top

• Danks K's looking at a breaking ball on the inside corner
•  Cabrera rolls a 1-2 pitch up the middle, left of the second base bag for a single.
• Pierzynski reaches down for a fastball that gets a bit too much of the plateand golfs it into the first row or so of the blechers just right of center.  AJ is very pleased with himself.  3-1 Sox.
• 3-0 count to Quentin.  Walks after a 3-1 count on a curve that floats high and outside, not unlike the floating curve Dye hit out.
• Lilly jams Dye, flies out to DeRosa
• Swisher walks, Rothschild out to the mount.
• Crede with a weak pop out to Theriot, in front of the second base bag.  Inning over.

Inning 3 - Bottom

•  Lilly's thrown 60 pitches through three.
• Lilly K's swinging at a fastball
• Fukudome misses a breaking ball low and outside, by a foot.  Strikes out.
• Crede with a nice diving play to his left on a grounder by Theriot.  Gets him at first.
• Way, way more gloating from Hawk than I can stand in that inning.  Two "he gone"s and a "yes!" on the Crede play.  Glad I also have Pat and Ron going on, via mlb.com

Inning 4 - Top

•  Alexei Ramirez K's swinging
• Anderson grounds to Theriot.
• Danks with a broken bat, soft fly out to Murton.  Quick inning.

Inning 4 - Bottom

•  Lee hits a 3-1 fastball intot he right field well, Dye makes the catch
• Ramirez grounds to Cabrera
• Soto K's looking.

Inning 5 - Top

•  Cabrera K's swinging through a very nice change up
• AJ with a soft liner to shallow center, Fukudome gets it
• Quentin hits one high and deep to just left of center.  Fukudome can't decide if he can make a catch right at the Ivy or not, and gets caught in between.  At the last second decides to play it off the wall.  Probably a good call there.  Ball is maybe a half-foot short of landing in the basket.  Double.
• Dye promptly grounds to Theriot.

Inning 5 - Bottom

•  (Missed this inning due to phone call, but DeRosa K'd, Murton grounded out and so did Cedeno.  As far as I can tell, it sounds like it was a very nice 3-1 play by Swisher.  (On replay, Danks' foot beat Cedeno's sliding hand to the bag, by a few inches.)

Inning 6 - Top

•  Swisher hits a double into the left-field well.
• Crede K's swinging.
• Ramirez pops up behind home plate.  Soto circles it, makes the catch.  Lilly with two nice outs to keep Swisher on second.
• Lilly really slowing things down against Anderson.
• Anderson waves at a pitch low and away for strike 3.  Looked like a change to me, but the gun read 88mph.  Pat and Ron now saying it also looked like a change to them.   Regardless, nice work by Lilly to strand Swisher

Inning 6 - Bottom

•  Lilly flies to Dye.  Battles the sun, but makes the catch
• Fukudome singles to left.
• Danks giving Fukudome a lot of undue attention at first base.  DJ and Hawk even note he's on the edge of balking
• Theriot bounces into a crisp 5-4-3 GIDP.  gyeh.

Inning 7 - Top

•  Uribe hits for Danks, dumps a hit into center just in front of Fukudome.  He overruns it a bit, makes an awkard lunge back for it, hopefully didn't strain anything
• Cabrera pulls one right down the left field line, it actually slices back a bit towards the foul pole, just barely missing it.  Foul ball.
• K's looking at a curve on the outside corner on the next pitch
• Pierzynski with a weak pop to Theriot.
• Quentin walks.  Lilly out, Howry in to face Dye
• Dye with a soft liner right at Murton, out of the inning

Inning 7 - Bottom

•  Dotel in for Danks, leaves having thrown 106 pitches
• Very first pitch, Lee hits one maybe a dozen rows up in straight-away right.  Some Sox fan gets a hole of the ball and throws it back on the field.  3-2 game.
• Ramirez gets out in front a bit of a breaking pitch, but still manages to drive it into the left field bleachers.  Looks like it almost was one-handed.  Santo is going nuts on the radio broadcast.  WGN still hasn't shown a replay of that homer, jerks.
• There we go.  A rolling slider.
• Hawk, your "he gone!" rings a bit hollow when it comes on the heels of back to back home runs that tie up the game against your sorry reliever.  That said, Soto K's.
• DeRosa drives a liner to right, but Dye makes a nice catch running in on it.
• Murton rolls a single in to right.  Reached out for a low and away breaking pitch.
• Hawk says Marmol reminds him of Fausto Carmona
  • Sure.  The only real difference being that Marmol strikes out NINE AND A HALF MORE BATTERS PER NINE INNINGS than Carmona.  Otherwise, they're practically the same guy.
• Cedeno K's swinging

Inning 8 - Top

• Heh, Pat points out that we had Back to Back Jacks winners in that silly radio contest that no one ever wins.  Woo.
• Swisher lines a single in to right
•  Crede grounds into a 5-4-3 GIDP.  No problem.
• Ramirez bounces out to Cedeno at second.

Inning 8 - Bottom

• Hoffpauir to hit for Howry, and with that, Matt Thornton in for Dotel.
• and Blanco in for Hoffpauir
• Blanco flies to Quentin in left
• Fukudome K's swinging at a fastball
• Theriot dumps a single into right-center.
• Crowd on its feet for Lee.
• Thornot paying a lot of attention to Theriot.
• Lee with a fly out to Anderson in center.

Inning 9- Top

• Wood in for Howry
• Anderson smashes one to center, right over Fukudome's head.  I thought it was going out.  But it hits off the ivy, just right ofthe 400 ft sign.  Fukudome gets too close to the wall and it gets past him, but Anderson plays it very cautiously and stays at second.  Second time that Fukudome has struggled with some very tough judgement calls at the wall
• Thome with a fisted popup to Theriot.  That makes at least four weak pops to short this game, that I count.
• 2-0 count to Cabrera, Wood buckles him with a curve for a strike.  Next pitch in the dirt, 3-1
• Cabrera flies to DeRosa in medium right, Anderson holds.
• Pierzynski up, lots of booing.
• Pierzynski K's on a check swing.  The appeal declares he swung at it, and Pierzynski, to no one's surprise, is pissed and it's Not His Fault!!!!!!! ~sob~.  Barks all the way back to the dugout.  Pitch was probably a strike, anyway.  Inning over.

Inning 9 - Bottom

•  Linebrink in for Thornton
• Ramirez hits one into the shrubbery in center field.  Rounds first base with the fist in the air, and Wrigley goes nuts.  Everyone comes out to greet him at home, and does the Group Jump.
• Dead Silence from Ken "Hawk" Harrelson.
• Meanwhile, Santo screams his lungs out.

Parachat Recap

 

Inning 1

• Our bodies are revolting.
  
  • Er, rebelling.
• last night's game.
• Scrap
• Len references OPS, woo

Inning 2

• Where is everyone?
• Kenny and Ozzie's classless comments about the Cubs and Wrigley.

Inning 3

• Blasting the bark off a tree.
• Lilly's mental stature.
• Lilly and Fukudome's swings.

Inning 4

•  Publishing
• Oblivious students.
• Bite-me land.

Inning 5

•  Cito Gaston
• Lilly's HR pace
• How long until we can panic?

Inning 6

• Lilly's pitch count.
• Gallagher
• Carlos, Carlos, Carlos
• HOF prospects for current pitchers
• Cito Gaston, again
• Trade rumors
• Other Cubs blog message boards.

Inning 7

•  Jerry Manuel will cut you.
• State Capitals
• Greinke rooming with Brett
• The Recliner Incident
• Why let Lilly lead off one half inning, then pull him mid-way through the next?
• Vodka advertisements

Inning 8

• fending off a gang with a couch.
•  Danks' bulletin-board quotation about Wrigley

Inning 9

• Following the game
• fantasy trades
•  Pandemonium

Cubs record in games recapped improves to 10-5